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Maine Geospatial Institute internship program expands; UMS Transforms, state cost-share help pay student wages
Summary
The Maine Geospatial Institute (MGI), supported by UMS Transforms funding and a state cost-share, ran a paid summer internship for 15 students in 2024 and expects a larger 2025 cohort; projects ranged from mapping for LifeFlight and rockweed surveys to municipal development analysis, and site sponsors asked to repeat the program.
System leaders and program coordinators described the Maine Geospatial Institute's summer internship program as a successful multi-campus model that paid students to perform substantive GIS mapping and analysis for public agencies and nonprofits.
Eileen Morin, MGI program coordinator, recounted four student projects from 2024: a LifeFlight of Maine site-conditions tool built by an ecology student working with the Maine Forest Service; a municipal planning analysis by a Farmington student; a craft-beverage supply-chain mapping project for the New England Environmental Finance Center; and a remote rockweed mapping internship on Cobscook Bay. In 2024 the program placed 15 undergraduate and graduate interns who together worked more than 4,800 hours for public and nonprofit site sponsors including the Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands, Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, Portland Water District, and others.
Program staff said 2024 funding came from a Maine Jobs and Recovery Program (MJRP) grant and UMS Transforms support. For 2025, administrators described a new cost-share model: returning site sponsors will contribute to student wages, with continued UMS Transforms support for program coordination. The application pool expanded: staff reported 45 applicants in 2024 and more than 50 UMS applicants for summer 2025; applicants outside UMS also expressed interest.
Program leaders told trustees that multiple site sponsors asked how to repeat the internship; coordinators said a state Department of Marine Resources coastal-mapping collaboration and other new partners would add opportunities for hands-on marine mapping in 2025. Several interns from 2024 found paid work or graduate admission after their internships, program staff said.
Ending: Trustees heard the internship update as an example of multi-campus experiential learning tied to workforce needs; staff said they would continue to pursue a sustainable funding model and scale the program in 2025.
