Monday, February 8, 2010

The Mickey Leland Environmental Internship Program

Norris McDonald & Mickey Leland, 1982
The Mickey Leland Environmental Internship Program provides summer internship opportunities for minorities, women, and economically disadvantaged students pursuing environmental, engineering, science-related, and public administration careers at colleges and universities across the United States. The program was established in 1992 by the Texas Water Commission (a predecessor agency to the TCEQ) in partnership with the Texas Water Development Board, the Texas General Land Office, the Texas Chemical Council, the Texas Council of the American Electronics Association and numerous private corporation.

The purpose of the program is to expose undergraduate and graduate students to environmental issues and provide them with opportunities to gain professional experience.
The program honors the late U.S. Congressman Mickey Leland's effective efforts to promote a clean and healthy environment. Congressman Leland was killed in a plane crash on August 7, 1989, en route to Ethiopia on a mission as Chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Select Committee on Hunger. Leland's environmental commitment is well documented. He was most noted for his contributions as a member of the Subcommittee on Health and Environment. He emphasized and demonstrated the importance of heightened awareness and involvement of minority participation in the protection of public health and environmental issues and consistently addressed public health issues related to the minority community.

Students interested in participating in the Mickey Leland program must have completed at least 60 undergraduate semester hours at the end of the most immediate past Fall semester or be a current graduate student enrollee. Candidates must be enrolled full time during the current Spring semester and have a minimum academic grade point average of 2.0 on a 4.0 scale at the time of application.

The official deadline for submitting the application and supporting documents will be April 1, 2010. Interested intern candidates should submit an application form.

AAEA President McDonald, pictured above with Mickey Leland in 1982, organized the first Congressional Black Caucus Energy Braintrust in cooperation with the congressman's office. (Texas Commission on Environmental Quality)

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