February 7, 2025
River Partners’ Restoration Scholars program is scaling up green jobs and talented next-generation leaders to build a more resilient California.
Summer 2025 applications are open until March 14, 2025.
If you ask people pursuing conservation careers how they hope to channel their talents, you’re bound to get a variety of answers. But it’s likely that they’d all agree on one thing: They want to make a meaningful difference with whatever it is they end up doing.
That’s exactly what River Partners’ Restoration Scholars program is all about—giving passionate, driven individuals the opportunity to gain hands-on experience and build the next generation of skilled restoration leaders.
Since 2000, River Partners has mentored over 200 early-career students in environmental science, natural resource management, land stewardship, and policy development. Through our paid, eight-week summer internship, participants gain exposure to real-world river restoration projects and gain skills and training to build meaningful careers in the growing restoration sector.
The program has helped launch careers and inspire life-long conservation stewards. Below, past Restoration Scholars share how the program shaped their paths and how their internship at River Partners accelerated their careers.
From the Field to the Lab: Francis Ulep’s Environmental Science Journey
Francis Ulep, now a PhD student at UC Davis’ Plant Optics Lab, works at the intersection of plant ecophysiology and ecosystem ecology. Or, in layman’s terms, he studies how plants influence and are influenced by larger ecosystem dynamics, relating to carbon storage, water use, and climate resilience. His research on plant physiology and remote sensing earned him an Outstanding Student Presentation Award from the American Geophysical Union.
But step back to 2018, when Francis was completing his undergraduate degree at UC Merced. Unsure of his exact path within environmental science, he applied for and was accepted as a Restoration Scholar.
“My internship at River Partners allowed me to experience a wide range of what is going on in restoration,” he shared. “I had no idea that these large-scale restoration projects are even happening, let alone in my backyard.”
That summer, Francis worked on transformative restoration efforts, including at Dos Rios Ranch Preserve—now California’s newest state park, located near Modesto. That experience exposed him to a groundbreaking scale of ecological restoration and the technologies shaping the field.
“Having the ability to see different landscapes across the state, from Dos Rios down to Bakersfield with the common goal of restoring degraded land was incredibly impactful,” he reflected. “Not only in shaping my research focus today, but also in thinking about the climate resiliency of our native landscapes.”
One unexpected spark came from his first exposure to drone technology.
“I was shown the drone, took some photos, and thought, ‘This is pretty sweet.’ That fall, I took a remote sensing course, and that made me link the two,” said Francis. “We have a cost-effective way to monitor land—how can that be done at scale?”
After his internship, Francis stayed on with River Partners as a biologist for nearly four years, gaining hands-on experience in restoration science, and including mentoring cohorts of Restoration Scholars. “The truly real-world experience that you get is not only eye-opening but gives you additional context to what you might be learning in class,” he says.
In 2022 Francis left River Partners to pursue his PhD at UC Davis. Today, he is advancing research with tower-based remote sensing, using instruments mounted 50 feet high to track vegetation greenness, productivity, and drought stress. His recent work focuses on using sensors to detect early signs of drought stress in crops without physically checking on things such as soil moisture—an approach that could transform early stress detection in agriculture.
“If we can detect early warning signs of drought stress through remote sensing, we can better understand how plants respond to changing conditions and improve water management strategies,” he explained. “This has implications for farmers, landowners, and even cities looking to allocate water resources more effectively.”
Francis’s research also ties into climate resilience. By understanding how drought stress impacts crop yield, scientists can better predict how crops will respond to future climate scenarios.
Francis’s latest research proposal, “Smoke and Optics – Assessing Ecosystem Productivity in the Presence of Fire-Related Aerosols Through a Scaled Remote Sensing Approach” was recently awarded funding through NASA’s highly competitive Future Investigators in NASA Earth and Space Science and Technology (FINESST) program. He was one of over 1,000 submissions reviewed for graduate student-led research. Through this funding, Francis will investigate how wildfire smoke impacts plant productivity with remote sensing to further climate and carbon cycle research.
His journey—from a Restoration Scholar at River Partners to leading-edge research at UC Davis—highlights the power of real-world experience in shaping the future of environmental science.
A Global Perspective: Lambert Ngenzi’s Journey from River Restoration to International Water Development
For Lambert Ngenzi, the Restoration Scholars program was more than just an internship—it was a turning point.
“You build those little relationships that are so small but very meaningful,” he recalls of his time at River Partners. Today, Lambert is leading resource-development projects in Amman, Jordan, tackling one of the world’s most pressing environmental challenges: water scarcity.
Lambert grew up in the Republic of Congo and moved to Seattle, Washington with his family. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Washington State University with a degree in Environmental Science and a concentration in water resource management, as well as a minor in Geographic Information Systems. In 2020, as a Restoration Scholar, Lambert honed his GIS skills while working remotely due to the pandemic. His projects ranged from monarch butterfly conservation to mapping the lower San Joaquin River channel.
At the end of his internship, a road trip to visit the restoration projects he had worked on changed everything. “That experience was transformative,” he shared. “Seeing firsthand the impacts of erosion, levees, and water management sparked something.”
Lambert documented the road trip and his internship in a storymap titled “Experiencing a Summer Internship with River Partners.” On that road trip, Lambert received a crash course on drones from Francis Ulep (see story above).
That spark led Lambert to graduate studies at Duke University, where his Masters project focused on river restoration and dam removals for restoring stream connectivity. His mentor at River Partners, Senior Director of Conservation John Cain, introduced him to Professor Matt Kondolf at UC Berkely, an expert in human-river interactions, whose guidance helped shape Lambert’s path to Duke.
After earning his Masters in 2023, Lambert secured a prestigious fellowship, covering his studies and leading to his work overseeing international water-development efforts. Currently he is working in Jordan, one of the most-water scarce nations in the world, on large-scale infrastructure projects aimed at improving water efficiency.
“In my neighborhood, you get water once a week and some neighborhoods get water once a month. It’s worst in summer season. You have a water tank on your roof and gravity helps you get the water,” he explained. “With climate change and population growth including a lot of refugees fleeing war, that puts immense stress on the water resources. I’ve been very lucky to be on this team, where we try to do as much as we can to help the people of Jordan to have access to resources like water.”
Looking back, Lambert credits River Partners for helping shape his career. “It exposed me to things I’d never dreamed about,” he says. “You get so close to a problem, and you start caring for it. You want to become a steward for the environment. And everywhere you go, there will be an environment.”
Shaping Future Restoration Leaders
Francis’ and Lambert’s stories show how River Partners’ Restoration Scholars program is more than an internship—it’s a catalyst for launching meaningful careers. By fostering hands-on experience and deep partnerships, River Partners is helping shape a new generation of environmental leaders prepared to tackle global challenges.
