At Raritan Headwaters, helping hands are always welcome, and one of the greatest “win-wins” is our student internship program.

The interns – usually college students or recent graduates – gain valuable real-world work experience while being mentored by our dedicated professional staff. In exchange, RHA receives enthusiastic assistants who are passionate about their academic and career paths, eager to learn more, and happy to contribute fresh ideas.

Over the years, we’ve been fortunate to have many outstanding interns help us advance our clean water mission by contributing to our programs in science, education, land stewardship, policy, and more.

Some interns tackle specialized projects our staff don’t have the capacity to take on, while others help lighten the load by managing data or working on complex logistical projects, such as our annual Stream Cleanup, which involves more than 1,000 volunteers.

For the 2025-26 school year, we are benefiting from the help of six talented interns. Here’s what they’ve been doing:

Hadleigh Buckingham – Hadleigh, a senior at Rutgers University, assisted the education staff in programs that used nature-based experiences and art projects to help individuals on the autism spectrum thrive socially, emotionally, and academically. She is majoring in psychology and double-minoring in education and disability studies. Hadleigh plans to attend graduate school next year to focus on applied behavior analysis and become a Board-Certified Behavior Analyst.

“Using nature as a setting for learning and connection has been among the most unique and rewarding aspects of this experience. Being outdoors seemed to have a calming, grounding effect on many participants. This experience strengthened my understanding of inclusion, accessibility, and neurodiversity, showing me that the right accommodations and environment can help individuals thrive.” -Hadleigh Buckingham

Alison Chabla – Alison, a Rutgers University senior majoring in environmental science, provided a service for paddlers by updating a “water trail” map along the Raritan River and adding new features. Working with RHA’s Geographic Information System (GIS) manager, she focused on improving the accuracy and accessibility of the water trail map. She added real-time water level links to the map so paddlers can easily check river conditions before going out, and translated the instructions into Spanish to reach more users.

“The water trail is designed to help people safely explore and enjoy the Raritan River by providing a mapped, accessible route for kayaking or canoeing. This new updated water trail provides key access points, take-outs, landmarks, and environmental features along the river so that everyone can navigate confidently.” -Alison Chabla

Hadia Khan – Hadia is contributing to data management and analysis for our stream monitoring program. Her work includes standardizing and updating taxonomic data from over 30 years of macroinvertebrate collections and identifications, as well as importing and standardizing regional water quality data. A resident of Edison and a Rutgers University graduate, she is pursuing a master’s degree in climate science and policy at Bard College in New York. She will continue working with us through spring 2026 to support trend analyses using our long-term data.

Henry Poblete – Henry is a senior at Rutgers University, majoring in environmental engineering. Throughout Fall 2025, Henry synthesized data from our well-testing program and developed outreach materials explaining the harmful impacts of PFAS (Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances). Henry focused on determining which types of these “forever chemicals” have the most significant exceedances of state and federal standards and on identifying non-regulated PFAS types with high values. Henry’s findings and report will inform RHA’s future analysis and writings.

Niveditha Chozhan – Niveditha (Nivi) is a sophomore at Rutgers University, majoring in biology and minoring in psychology. Throughout the fall of 2025, she worked on developing outreach materials for municipalities with waterways within their boundaries that have been placed on the NJDEP’s list of impaired waters. Her work has focused on analyzing water quality trends, identifying water body stressors, and synthesizing these findings to help municipalities understand the causes of impairments and develop restoration strategies.

Owen Penczak – Owen is currently helping the RHA staff prepare for our annual Stream Cleanup on April 18th. He graduated from Delaware Valley University in Pennsylvania in 2025 with a bachelor’s degree in environmental science. He is pursuing a master’s degree in management and organizational leadership at the same university. He is not new to Raritan Headwaters; he has been working with us as an environmental educator since the summer of 2024. Owen enjoys hiking and spending time outdoors in his spare time.