On a more positive note: I took both volunteer and paid internship positions for three years after I graduated from college. The experience was invaluable! I was able to work in a variety of ecosystems (both tropical and desert), I learned valuable skills that have helped me greatly in my graduate career and beyond. By taking these positions rather than jumping right into a graduate program, my interests were able to evolve without repercussions. And by evolving interests I mean I began studying mating behavior of birds, moved to endangered species projects, and am now an ecosystem ecologist/ soil biogeochemist. Finally, one of my employers eventually became my PhD advisor. It was a great chance for us to work together before making the very real commitment to six years of a PhD!!!
I will say that I never once paid to do the research... room and board was always covered. On May 23, 2007, at 5:13 PM, Toshihide Hamazaki wrote: > I consider use of volunteers / interns (especially, aspiring biology > students) as one form of a labor exploitation. > > Their labor were paid cheaply, and sometimes they have to pay by > themselves > to get a volunteer position. > Sure, those field sampling experience would be to some extent > valuable, but > this does not necessarily leads to their carrier advancement. In > academic, > carrier advancement is determined not by the number of years spent > in field > sampling collections, but the number of research papers published. > This > requires more of research, analytical, and writing, skills than > field data > collection skills. > However, those skills are not provided during their volunteer periods. > > The field data collected by the student volunteers/inters will > eventually be > published, but their name will never appear anywhere in the > publication > (possibly, acknowledgements if the professors are very generous). > > Some of the students could be invited to apply for graduate school > if the > professor consider highly of them. But, that's again depends on > amount of > funding, which is not guaranteed. > > These issue also applies to Non-profit research organizations. Not > many > staff at non-profit organization publish peer-reviewed papers, and > they > don't have that much money to promote the volunteer to a regular > staff. > > I also hope those volunteers are fully covered by insurance during > field > work period by the organization they were volunteering. > > > > Looking beyond larger social issue: > > Use of volunteers would naturally exclude those who cannot afford > to be a > volunteer (e.g., poor/minorities). Many of them need to earn > tuition money > during summer. When those field volunteer experience is viewed as the > students' "dedication" to the research subject, then those who > cannot afford > to volunteer have less chance to enter graduate school. > > > > Toshihide "Hamachan" Hamazaki > Alaska Department of Fish & Game > Division of Commercial Fisheries > Arctic-Yukon_Kuskokwim Region > > 333 Raspberry Rd > Anchorage, AK 99518 > Phone: 907-267-2158 > Fax: 907-267-2442 > E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
