Meet Our Intern - Nathaniel Burola

Nathaniel graduated from California Lutheran University (CLU) in December 2017 with a Bachelor of Science (BS) in Environmental Science and a minor in Political Science. After completing a 8-month internship with Alta Environmental, he plans on attending graduate school in September 2018 to get a Master of Environmental Science and Management (MESM) with a specialization in Coastal Marine Resources Management (CMRM). My top choice for graduate school is the University of California, Santa Barbara or Duke University. He was accepted into both UCSB and Duke, as well as, Wageningen University and University College Dublin and is awaiting financial aid information to make his final decision.

He worked during his undergraduate studies conducting marine ecology research at CLU, as well as, freshwater ecology research at the University College Dublin (UCD) in Ireland. He also held internships with the USAID Short-Term Assistance to Improve Public Financial Management Reform (STAIR) project in Sri Lanka, the Fauna and Flora International (FFI) in Cambodia, and the Cambodian Children’s Fund (CCF) in Cambodia.

We had an opportunity to sit down with Nate and hear more about his future goals.

What are your career aspirations?

My academic inspirations include getting a PhD to become a principal investigator at an institution. I would enjoy mentoring students with their undergraduate research and teach part-time. In addition, I would like to work as an environmental consultant on the side with an international lifestyle working with organizations such as the Green Climate Fund (GCF).

What advice can you give to current students seeking internships?

This internship and the journey to get here in the first place have taught me that patience and adaptability is key in the long run. Patience comes into play when you receive many seemingly boring tasks as an intern such as data entry or report writing that might seem boring at first, however, every task builds a certain kind of knowledge or skill. Adaptability is essential when you experience difficulties when you are working with creative solutions being necessary to solve the problem.

Why have you chosen your current educational/career pursuits?

My long-term career objectives are influenced by the high educational standard that my family has set forward, a level that I want to meet and excel at. My mother, who holds a PhD in international law, and my father, who has an MBA in economics, have always motivated me to pursue higher education. Professionally, I was interested in learning more about environmental consulting as I did not want to limit myself solely to the academic world. I was curious to see how I could apply the theoretical side of what I learned about environmental science during my undergraduate years to the real world.

What have you enjoyed most about your internship with Alta so far?

Alta Environmental, as a consulting firm, has a wide range of diversity and talent in the teams that make up the company. I have been exposed to different opportunities allowing me to study and learn about various fields. The employees that make up Alta Environmental are also fascinating to work with as they are willing to take the time to explain the various intricacies of environmental consulting to me. Alta truly is a great place to grow and learn! ​