A summer job shadow experience helped one online student see what her future in environmental science could really look like
Lily Vanwingerden signed up for Oregon State University’s summer Job Shadow Program expecting a 30-minute Zoom call where she might get insights on what she could do with her degree in environmental sciences — and instead walked away from a full day of friendly conversations that reshaped the way she thought about careers.
“Doing the job shadow was about a bajillion times more helpful than I could have imagined,” she said. “It showed me not just a field that I could work in, but also glimpses of all the particular little jobs within it. In terms of career planning, it gave me a better sense of what I could even be aiming for.”
Those insights couldn’t have come at a better time. When Lily first learned about the Job Shadow Program, she’d been admitted to the College of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences but hadn’t yet begun her first term. A transfer student from New Jersey learning online with Oregon State, Lily was eager to find connection within her new university and interested in where her major in environmental sciences might take her.
A chance to see what’s possible
“One of the reasons I chose OSU, and this particular program, was because I was interested in seeing all the different facets I might explore,” she said. “I wanted online learning, but it should still have the interactive component that I’d get if I was on campus.”
Just at this in-between phase, she got an e-newsletter advertising the Job Shadow Program, and was excited to read that many Oregon State job shadow hosts are happy to host virtual meetings for students anywhere in the country.
“When I saw that it was not only open to Ecampus students, but that it was also open to first-year transfer students, that felt amazing,” Lily said. “It was like, such a special gift that it wasn’t just restricted to people who are on campus. Seeing as I wasn’t even taking classes yet, it already felt so welcoming.”
Lily wasn’t sure how much competition there would be for the job shadow opportunities related to the environment and natural resources, but she decided to give it a shot. “I thought, let me just put in an application and see what happens!” she said.
After submitting her top choices, she forgot all about it — until she got another email a few months later, this one informing her that she’d been matched with a host, Natalie Hardwicke with Oregon Tilth, an organic certification and education organization.
“That was kind of the cool part, learning that you’re hand-matched to a host,” Lily said. “It felt nice that someone has looked at it and said, ‘Oh, you’d be a good fit to learn from these people.’ That it wasn’t just a robot randomly assigning you into buckets.”
After emailing her host and confirming the date of her experience, she expected to hear back confirming a time for a 30- or 60-minute Zoom meeting; instead, her host replied that she’d send an agenda later in the summer.
“I was like … agenda? That seems fancy!” Lily recalled. “But it was still a month or two away, so I didn’t think too much about it.”
Want to do a job shadow? Here’s how it works
1. Browse available host listings: You can see which hosts are available in fields you’re interested in, what types of experiences they are offering, and which hosts are available to host either in-person or virtually.
2. Fill out an application: For the 2026 Job Shadow Program, applications are due May 1.
3. Get matched: You’ll hear back by May 8.
4. Prepare: Students are required to attend an online orientation in mid-May.
5. Complete your job shadow: Job shadows take place during the summer at a time that is convenient for both the student and the host.
Inside a working organization
As August 1, the date of her job shadow, neared, her host did indeed send out a detailed agenda: six hours full of meetings with multiple people doing different jobs throughout the company.
“It was just like if I’d driven to an Oregon Tilth headquarters, and she walked me around to different people’s offices, and we popped in and out and talked with different people throughout the day. It was just like that, but instead of physical rooms it was Microsoft Teams rooms,” Lily said.
Lily talked with people who did inspection and certification work on organic farms; people in communications; people whose work involved education and advocacy; and people with jobs she hadn’t even known existed before her day spent virtually visiting Oregon Tilth. She learned their career paths, job titles and the skills needed to get those jobs.
“This ended up being so helpful,” she said. “I feel like, with environmental science, when you look up job advice, it’s like, what can I do with an environmental science degree? It’s like, you can be an environmental scientist. You work in a national park, and you take water samples. And I’m like, OK, there’s got to be more than this. This gave me so much more detail in terms of career planning.”
She was surprised to learn that though Oregon Tilth’s main office is in Corvallis, not all the people she met were based in Oregon. Some worked remotely, some were on-site and some traveled around the country to certify different farms and organic production facilities.
“As a remote student, it was kind of cool to see people working remote jobs, especially because when I think of agriculture, I think of being on the ground, of digging in the soil. It feels like you’re definitely tied to a certain place,” she said. “It was good to see that even within one company, there’s actually a lot of different opportunities.”
Now a junior on her way to earning her B.S. in Environmental Sciences with an online GIScience undergraduate certificate, Lily remains grateful for the chance to spend a day speaking to multiple people with careers related to caring for the Earth, who all arrived at their current jobs in their own unique ways.
“When you’re at the beginning of your own career journey, it’s nice to see that all these people had completely different paths,” she said. “I don’t have to have it exactly figured out right now.”
Learn more about applying to Oregon State University’s Job Shadow Program, which gives current students — including online learners — an opportunity to explore potential career paths by shadowing someone in their place of work.
