When Chris Sensing, biology major, was looking to fulfill his internship requirements, it only made sense to him to look for something that would affect the local community.

Sensing has reached the last semester of his college career at Cornerstone after eight years on and off. His journey through school has taken twice as long as some students because he had a few breaks in the process. He was deployed by the Army to Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003, and after that he moved to Alabama and enrolled in flight school before ending up back at CU.

The time away from home taught him something about himself, however.

“Being so far removed from my family and friends made me want to be involved more in the community,” Sensing said.

In December 2008, Sensing started his internship with Pierce Cedar Creek Institute. Set on 661 acres in Southwest Michigan, the institute’s mission is to promote environmental education, research, preservation and appreciation.

The land has everything from wetlands to forests to lakes and streams. The institute offers classes and events to the students and the public, and it also exists to research the environment.

“During the summer [college] students will come out and do research,” Sensing said. “It’s beneficial to the Institute, but not a direct benefit. What I’m doing there is something to benefit the Institute.”

One of the recent projects he worked on was a sampling of tree plots. He said the workers went out with snow shoes across the large plot of land to do the project. They picked out a sample of trees and measured the diameter and canopy height. In the future, someone else will recheck this information and compare it to what is recorded currently. Sensing said this is a management tool of the institute.

Sensing has also been a part of a project to help knock down and design a more “stream friendly” bridge, as well as another project involving birdhouses and planting grass. He said in the future the institute is going to put in a new boardwalk, and he is studying different methods and boardwalks to help with this.

Another possible future assignment with the institute is working with or leading hikes on the trails on the land.

“The fun part about my internship is that I get to be outside all day,” Sensing said. “We walk for miles past native stand of trees that are hundreds of years old, with the wind whipping outside. It’s really cool out there.”

Ray Gates, associate professor of biology, has spent time with Sensing in classes and also through the Florida biology class, which Sensing was an assistant for.

“He’s older than most students,” Gates said. “But it’s always nice to have an older student once in a while. They tend to be more motivated and take things more seriously, and that was the case with Chris.”

Gates said that as his assistant on the Florida trip, Sensing drove a van and cooked, and also did the little things that needed to be done.

“I appreciated that I didn’t have to tell him what needed to be done. It made my life easier and less stressful,” Gates said.

Sensing currently lives in Middleville with his wife and two children, and he is involved in his community there with an organization called the Thornapple Trails Association. The group is loosely affiliated with the city of Middleville, Sensing said, and its current project is taking old railroad paths and turning them into bike paths and foot trails.

“We’re looking at trying to do something for the cross country team, or give kids a route that they can walk on without having to walk on the street,” he said. “My part is to help the system so the community can come out and be educated.”

Sensing’s advice for others looking for internships is to look for something enjoyable.

“I would say to somebody looking for an internship to think about doing something you enjoy around the local community,” he said. “There are lots of opportunities out there; be persistent.”