Research Internships

Thanks to our low student-faculty ratio and ample funding for undergraduate research, nearly any student who wants to do research with a botany faculty member can. In recent years students have worked with faculty on projects in many parts of New England and the continental U.S., as well as Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, Venezuela, and Peru, in addition to laboratories in New London Hall. Some current faculty and student projects are listed in the Honors and Independent Study page.

Summer Research Opportunities: Research during the summer is an excellent opportunity to undertake an intensive study. There are programs that provide stipends for on-campus summer research including the Keck Undergraduate Science Program (contact any science faculty member for details), research grants to faculty, and other funded programs. If you are interested, just ask a faculty member for details. There are also several off-campus research opportunities. 

Scholarship Opportunities

The following programs are taking applications for scholarships. More information will be posted as it is received.

  • The Garden Club of America: The Garden Club of America offers a wide range of scholarships and fellowships for the study of landscape architecture, horticulture, medicinal botany, ecological restoration, coastal wetlands, tropical botany, field botany, urban forestry, environmental studies, and more. Applications and deadlines are on their website http://www.gcamerica.org/.

Careers and Graduate Programs

Botany students have a wide range of career options after they graduate from Connecticut College. Some enter the workforce in jobs directly related to their major, as field botanists who conduct plant surveys for environmental or private agencies, in a laboratory setting, or in the classroom as a teacher. Examples include career opportunities at the Nature Conservancy, Monsanto (Mystic, CT), and Pfizer (Groton, CT), and the American Association for the Advancement of Science "Project 2061" (Washington, DC). Other careers related to plants are collected at the Botanical Society of America's "Careers in Botany" website and the American Society of Plant Biologists. 

Other students decide to continue their education by attending graduate school. The department receives information from many graduate programs across the country and posts the information on the large display area outside the department office (211 New London Hall).

Newly received:

  • Various summer and fulltime jobs in botany and wildlife: Wilderness Awareness
  • Benjamin A. Gilman Internation Scholarship Program: for study abroad; must be receiving a Federal Pell Grant at time of application (see the Gilman website)
  • UNCF-Merk Science Initiative - Science Research Scholarship Awards (up to $25,000); must have junior year academic status (see UNCF Scholarships)
  • Purdue University Interdisciplinary Life Science Program - Plant Biology Training Group
  • University of California Riverside - Botany & Plant Sciences

Students in, or recently completing, graduate school include:

  • Laura Fahey, University of Southern California Ph.D., new postdoctoral fellowship at UCLA. Read about her Connecticut College research experience in the Winter 2009 Alumni Magazine.
  • Emily Elliott, UC San Francisco, National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship (Honors Thesis with Professor Owen)
  • Kathy Lindahl, Harvard Ph.D. (Honors Thesis with Professor Owen)

Recent graduates: if you would like to be included as an example, please contact Professor Owen.