See Where Chatham Students Spent Their 2026 Summer Internships

From left: Ava Dixon ’28, Bex Romer ’27, and Sarah Naccarato ’27.

Every summer, Chatham University undergraduate students spread across the city, country, and globe to pursue internships and gain valuable experience working with professionals. 

On this year’s National Intern Day, Pulse is highlighting students spending their summer working at Pittsburgh’s most iconic botanical garden, writing stories in a collaborative local newsroom, and researching geological change in Iceland.

Ava Dixon poses for a photo at Phipps’ outdoor gardens. (Courtesy of Ava Dixon)

Ava Dixon ’28

Internship: Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens

Major: Environmental science

As the horticulture intern at Pittsburgh’s historic Phipps Conservatory, Ava Dixon spent her summer doing maintenance on the outdoor garden and helping with the installation of 1,700 plants in the building’s welcome center.

“We ripped out an entire bed down in the center for sustainable landscapes,” Dixon says. “We just put a bunch of new soil down, and we're going to be planting a bunch of native plants in there.”

The work connects to much of what Dixon has done at Chatham. She’s worked with her professors on hydrology and invasive species, surveying plants at Eden Hall Farm, collecting data, and taking soil samples.

“With the research I did [at Eden Hall], it was a lot of plan identification,” Dixon says. “I feel like that has come in handy.” Additionally, she and a team spent time pulling out invasive species at Eden Hall and replanting native plants, another skill that goes together with her work at Phipps. 

In addition to the down and dirty work she’s done in the gardens, Dixon’s internship also involves taking educational courses on greenhouses and other topics with some of the experts at Phipps.

Originally from Belle Vernon, Dixon came to Chatham because she liked the beauty of Shadyside Campus, which is itself a historic arboretum. Its proximity to shops and cafes in Shadyside, as well as the intimate campus community, were also draws.

“I really like the smallness of everything and the connections you can make with everyone,” she says.

Bex Romer poses for a photo during a hike in Iceland. (Courtesy of Bex Romer)

Rebecca “Bex” Romer ’27

Internship: Global Treks Academy LLC

Major: Sustainability 

While working in Iceland this summer, Bex Romer spent 12 hours a day hiking, doing research, and studying how climate change is affecting the Nordic island nation.

“It was the best time of my life,” Romer says.

Among the activities she did over her eight-day trip, Romer went to Þingvellir National Park, visiting a geothermal energy plant, and seeing the Glymur waterfall. The whole time, she was making observations and collecting data for an article she’s writing about the effects of climate change on Iceland’s geology.

“They face so much seismic activity, and with that comes a lot of erosion—parcels of land falling off the coastline, so many landslides, it’s just tragic,” she says. “It’s been getting worse with extreme weather.”

Much of Romer’s time there was consumed by 12-hour days of work, something that required a lot of discipline from her and her fellow students. “Our research coordinators were there to help us and support us and answer questions. But they were also pushing us to home in on our own abilities: ‘Take everything you’ve learned so far in college and apply it to this.’”

As hard as it was at times, Romer says found confidence in her work and realized just how much she has learned at Chatham. 

“I had a great time,” she says. “I seek out experiences like this. I’m a rough student when it comes to sitting down in a class and listening to a lecture. I never realized how much I learned in class or in my degree until I was put in an independent space where it’s up to me to use my knowledge.”

But since she was in Iceland for just eight days, much of Romer’s time this summer has been spent putting together a publication with the other interns at Global Treks. 

“We all have to collaborate to make sure nothing is redundant between our sections,” she says. “We’re writing this for people who don’t know much about Iceland and ecology. … It’s a new writing style for me.”

The final draft is set to be completed in August, after which it will be edited and prepared for publication.

Sarah Naccarato, right, takes a photo with journalist Nick Tommarello at the Picklesburgh festival in Downtown. (Courtesy of Sarah Naccarato)

Sarah Naccarato ’26

Internship: Pittsburgh Media Partnership

Major: Journalism

Sarah Naccarato heard about the Pittsburgh Media Partnership internship from Sara Bauknecht, the assistant professor of communications at Chatham who advises the student news outlet, The Communiqué.

“[She] is the best and greatest resource I’ve had at Chatham,” Naccarato says. “Even outside of classes and help with the Communiqué, she’s always making students aware of internships and opportunities in the Pittsburgh area.”

For Naccarato, who worked as digital editor at the Communiqué and continues to contribute to the outlet, working with the Pittsburgh Media Partnership was a great opportunity. There, she attends workshops with media professionals, takes photos for articles, and writes stories for the partnership’s newsroom.

“It’s a really great way to get your foot in the door and build connections with other newsrooms and get, as authentically as you can, a newsroom experience,” Naccarato says. Although she notes it may lack the chaos one expects from a newsroom based on popular imagination.

“I get to kind of just exist in a space full of media professionals, and they all already work in the field and have their own breadth of knowledge, and I can network with those people,” she says.

One topic Naccarato has focused in on is the rise of legal gambling in Pennsylvania, and she’s turned her lens towards women with gambling problems. 

“They’re not necessarily seeing a lot of representation in support spaces,” she says. “A lot of people focus on male problem gamblers, because they’re the majority, but that causes a lack of research towards the effects of problem gambling on women. I’ve found that really interesting to work on.”