Internship Highlight- Calvin Parker

Hello CSS Community: My name is Calvin Parker and I am an undeclared sophomore currently working towards a degree track in Civil Engineering. This past summer, I had the pleasure of interning at the Baltimore County Department of Environmental Protection and Sustainability (EPS). This experience introduced me to the process of conceptualizing and designing environmental protection devices and systems. The three specific types of environmental protection services that I focused on during the internship were watershed/stream restoration and management, stormwater management, and shoreline restoration/stabilization. I learned about methods, design considerations, regulations, and concepts for these environmental protection objectives through in-office and field activities.

I interned under two different divisions within the organization (Watershed Restoration and Watershed Management). During my time with the Watershed Restoration division, I learned about concepts of stormwater design, storm water management, stream restoration, and shoreline stabilization. I accompanied two employees to a project called Beaver Dam Run in Cockeysville, MD. The main objectives of the project were to tackle address bank erosion, channel degradation, and improper channel geometry. The day before we went, an employee showed me the before and after pictures of how the stream was restored. He introduced me to civil engineering devices such as rip-rap, soil lifts, stone lining, and boulder revetment. While at the site, we conducted a geomorphic analysis. Part of this process was doing the longitudinal (cross sectional area) and latitudinal profile which is a measurement of the change in elevation both longitudinally and latitudinally along the stream. To do this, we used the laser level and rod technique. In addition to doing stream restoration, I also accompanied employees on site evaluations to inspect the conditions of completed stream restorations, and evaluations to determine if stream restoration was necessary.

Most of my work under the Watershed Management division was in-office rather than in the field. I was formally introduced to GIS (Geographic Information Systems) software and utilized this software to complete a quality control assignment delegated by my supervisor. The only time I was in the field under the Watershed Management division was when I conducted a biological analysis with EPS employees and other interns from the Watershed Monitoring division. This experience was incredibly enjoyable as we put on full body suits called weighters and went to two different streams to do activities such as electrofishing, water sampling, and habitat analyzation. Overall, I had a very enjoyable experience in which I learned an extensive amount of new material.

CSS Scholar,
Calvin Parker