Our Program
The Government Partnerships Program offers qualified upper-division undergraduate and graduate students the opportunity to “test-drive” a career at a government agency. We employ students with career interests in fields such as environmental management, geographical information systems (GIS), public administration, management and planning, computer science, information technology, instructional design, multi-media design and production, and many others. Our interns gain real-world experience and sharpen their technical skills while working for government agencies.
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| Our History
As a Professor of Geography at Texas State University, Dr. Robert Larsen often met very talented students that were forced to work low-wage restaurant and retail jobs to fund their educations. At the same time, through his work as an environmental consultant, he encountered government agencies struggling to find technically-skilled workers to meet the demands of increasing workloads. He founded the Government Partnerships Program in 2003 as a way to connect these two groups. Since its inception, The Program has enabled hundreds of students to gain valuable real-world work experience at government agencies. Initially, the program focused on environmental agencies with most interns working for the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ). The program has proven to be so successful—benefiting both students and agencies—that we have expanded our services to work with a broader range of government agencies. |
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| Our Leadership
Dr. Robert D. Larsen, Professor of Geography at Texas State University, is the founder and Director of the Government Partnerships Program. He teaches solid-waste management and has extensive experience with land-use planning and using GIS to create databases of geo-coded information. An experienced environmental consultant, Dr. Larson also serves as President of the Board of Directors for the Barton Springs Edwards Aquifer Conservation District. Ronald J. Stephenson, a doctoral candidate in Environmental Geography, is the Assistant Director of the Government Partnerships Program. Ron brings years of qualified experience in environmental planning, management, landscape architecture, and environmental communication to the program. | |
