Kansas State Grassland Insect Community Ecology Internship, Summer 2026
Every summer, The Bill Lane Center for the American West offers many opportunities for Stanford undergraduates (including graduating seniors and co-terms) to work with organizations throughout the West. Through these internships, students can explore careers in natural history, conservation, land use, museum curation, resource management, energy and more.
All internships are full-time for nine to ten weeks during the summer. They are fully funded by the Lane Center with stipends ranging from $7,500 to $10,000.
The Lane Center has placed hundreds of interns in positions across the West since 2005. It has developed strong relationships with host organizations and works hard to ensure interns have successful and enriching experiences.
For more information about the internship program, please visit the FAQs page, or email Education Manager Corinne Thomas.
Details about previous summer student interns and their placements can be found here.
Student reflections about the internship experience can be found by visiting the Out West student blog and the Lane Center Instagram channel.
Stipend Information:
The Bill Lane Center will provide a base stipend of $7,500 with additional funding for student financial aid and location, if applicable, up to $10,000. The stipend is provided to cover living expenses and, if applicable, part of the summer earnings expectation of the Office of Financial Aid.
The stipend is not intended to be, and is not, a paid, hourly wage. An internship is an educational and experiential learning opportunity intended for the student to apply their academics and gain real-world experience.
Description of the Organization:
The Grassland Arthropod Ecology Lab is in the Division of Biology at Kansas State University. We study what, how, and why grassland arthropod communities vary over space and time and the repercussions of this variation. Our lab is a welcoming and inclusive environment. We prioritize the well-being of all lab members and collaborators, and value scientific integrity, strong communication, work-life balance, and scientific mentoring and research opportunities for all experience levels.
Internship Overview:
The intern will conduct fieldwork at the nearby field site Konza Prairie Biological Station as part of research projects on grassland arthropod ecology.
Research questions the lab is currently working on that this internship will have the potential to be involved with include:
1) Identifying arthropod community responses to presence and densities of mammalian herbivores through experiment manipulations of herbivore effects,
2) Quantifying the ecological roles played by arthropods with a focus on nutrient cycling and decomposition and how and why these roles are changing,
3) Testing for long-term changes in inter and intra-specific traits of grasshopper communities, and
4) Determining responses of insect and plant communities to use of insecticides.
The intern will assist graduate students with their projects, with a focus on grasshopper community ecology. Orthoptera (grasshoppers, crickets, and katydids) are dominant herbivores in many grassland habitats, with implications for plant biomass, plant communities, and nutrient cycling. A subset of Orthoptera species go through periodic increases in population which are poorly understood and have the potential to decrease the amount of forage available for livestock.
The intern will assist graduate students with sweep net surveys to assess grasshopper species composition and ring counts to access grasshopper densities. The intern will help conduct plant biomass surveys, using a pasture meter, and plant nutrient surveys by clipping aboveground plant biomass. This work will be of direct benefit to inform future policy recommendations for grasshopper management in rangeland habitats.
If of interest, the intern will be supported to conduct an independent research project, from field collection to submission of manuscripts to peer-reviewed journals. Past intern-led projects in the Welti lab have resulted in insightful and fun publications (e.g. Alhassani & Welti 2025 DOI: 10.1002/ecy.70232; Allgire et al. 2025 DOI: 10.1111/een.70025; Rebh & Welti 2025 DOI: 10.1002/ecy.70192).
Internship Work Environment:
This internship is in-person: ~70% field work/30% lab work but can vary based on intern interests and research needs.
The intern will work with small teams of 2-5 people in the field and may conduct independent work in the lab based on their interests towards the end of the field season.
Early summer fieldwork will involve longer hours in the field conducting field surveys at Konza Prairie Biological Station. Later summer work will include a mix of field and lab work such as sorting insect and plant samples.
Field work will be conducted at the Long Term Ecological Research site Konza Prairie. In the field, the intern will only work as part of a team including Welti graduate students (Calla Sopko, Hannah Obenaus, & Evanna Jaramillo) and undergraduate research students. In the lab, the intern will work both with the team and may conduct work independently. The intern will meet weekly with Dr. Ellen Welti to touch base on the internship and to discuss an independent research project, if of interest to the intern.
Lab work will be conducted in the lab of Dr. Ellen Welti at Kansas State University.
Konza Prairie Biological Station, an 8,616-acre tallgrass prairie research station jointly owned and operated by KSU and The Nature Conservancy, is a 15 min drive from the KSU campus, hosts a herd of 200+ bison, several cattle allotments, a large-scale fire experiment, and is a global hub for grassland research. More information about Konza Prairie is available at: https://kpbs.konza.k-state.edu/ and https://lter.konza.ksu.edu/konza-prairie-long-term-ecological-research-lter.
Kansas State University (KSU) is a 162-year-old public land grant and R1 research university with a large centrally located campus in Manhattan, KS. KSU has >20K students including >4K graduate students and 65 academic departments within 9 colleges. KSU’s Division of Biology is within the College of Arts and Sciences and contains ~40 faculty and ~55 graduate students spanning a broad variety of research interests and an open and collaborative atmosphere. More information about the Division of Biology at Kansas State University is available at https://www.k-state.edu/biology/.
Housing Provided: The intern will be housed in university housing provided by Kansas State University.
University housing will be provided for the intern in the non-traditional student housing complex (Jardine apartments, Kansas State University). Interns may be expected to share an apartment with other students depending on university housing availability, but will be provided their own bedrooms and bathrooms. Each person is responsible for cleaning their own space and common areas, as well as removal of all trash and recycling. There are laundry facilities onsite. Pets are not allowed in university housing.
Transportation/Car: It is not necessary to have a car but may be more fun for interns that want to have more access to activities around town or get away on the weekends.
A provided field vehicle will be used by the team for all field activities. The intern MUST have a driver's license (for safety reasons in case of an emergency).
Location: The internship will be based in Manhattan, KS, in the beautiful Flint Hills of northeastern Kansas. Manhattan, KS is a friendly college town with a population of 55K residents +nonresident college students, an airport with multiple daily flights to Chicago and Dallas, a large number of local coffee shops, two downtown districts, art and natural history museums, and is a two hour drive away from Kansas City, a city with a population of 500K+ and many cultural amenities.
- Assist with sampling of grasshoppers and other insects
- Collect plants and soil samples
- Sort and curate collected insects
- Conduct lab processing of plants and soils
- Enter and organize data
Bill Lane Center internships are part of Cardinal Quarter opportunities and students from all disciplines are encouraged to apply. The opportunities are full-time (40 hours a week) for 9-10 consecutive weeks during the summer.
Specific start and end dates during the summer can be coordinated directly with the supervisor.
All undergraduates of any year, including graduating seniors, are eligible. Graduating seniors are eligible only if they are graduating in spring quarter. Students who have already graduated, e.g., fall or winter quarter of this academic year are not eligible.
Preference is given to students who have not previously been awarded a Bill Lane Center West internship and to students who will be enrolled the following fall quarter.
For more application advice, please visit the BLC’s FAQs page.
Please note:
- Students are not permitted to engage in another full-time internship, job, or volunteer opportunity (whether funded by Stanford or otherwise) during this full-time, summer internship.
- Student athletes should confirm the impact of any awarded stipend on their athletic eligibility by contacting the Compliance Services Office prior to committing to an internship.
- Stipend Policy per the U.S. Department of Education: A stipend is considered a resource and it may have an impact on a student’s financial aid. To comply with US Department of Education regulations, student payments, awards, prizes, and gifts that are made available to the student because they are a Stanford student, must be reported to the Financial Aid Office. The Financial Aid Office is responsible for the disbursement of stipend funds to undergraduates. For more information, please visit the Financial Aid Office's webpage about the student stipend policy.
Application Guidelines for this Internship:
No preference for any class year. Preference for students with majors in arts & sciences but open to all majors.
Required Skills:
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Be enthusiastic about grasslands/dryland insects and plants
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Have a driver’s license that is valid in the US
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Must be able to live and work in a remote setting with a small group
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Be prepared to work outdoors in challenging conditions including biting-insects, heat and humidity, sun-exposure, and primitive road conditions
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Be able to conduct physical activity including hiking in variable weather, lifting and carrying heavy equipment, bending, and cleaning
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Be willing to spend time in the lab processing insect and plant samples
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Have strong communication skills and be respectful to all team members
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Be able to follow safety guidelines
Preferred Skills:
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Knowledge of plant and/or insect identification, especially if relevant to grassland ecosystems
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Field or lab experience with an ecology or entomology project
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First aid and/or wilderness training
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Interest in pursuing a career in entomology, ecology, or conservation
Selection of applicants:
Complete applications are screened by Lane Center staff and the top candidates are contacted for a first-round interview with staff from The Bill Lane Center for the American West. Preference is given to students who have not previously been awarded a Bill Lane Center West internship and to students who will be enrolled the following fall quarter.
After the first-round interviews, top candidates for the position are then selected by a Lane Center committee to be forwarded to the host organization for consideration and possible second-round interviews with their potential supervisors and other staff.
After consideration, host organizations will notify the Lane Center of their preferred candidate and that applicant will receive an internship offer from Bill Lane Center staff by email.
The applicant is expected to respond promptly (within 48 hours) via email to the offer or the offer will be rescinded and another candidate may receive the offer.
Once an applicant accepts the offer, they should promptly notify all other Stanford and non-Stanford programs to which they have applied and withdraw their candidacy from those other opportunities.
Applicants not selected will be notified by Lane Center staff as soon as possible.
