Caden Gagnon, a University of Minnesota (UMN) student and 2026 Minnesota Technical Assistance Program (MnTAP) intern, has spent his summer piecing together what he calls “the water puzzle” at Saint Paul’s Como Park Zoo and Conservatory.
Working alongside aquarists, animal keepers, horticulturalists, maintenance staff, and other facility experts at Como, Gagnon has traced how water moves through Como’s animal exhibits, aquariums, gardens and historic buildings, creating a comprehensive picture of how the sprawling campus uses water and identifying opportunities to conserve it.
“Como is this massive facility. It’s a wonderful place that has tons of historic buildings and all these new components and additions,” Gagnon said. “The fun and the challenge of working there this summer has been trying to identify where exactly all of the water is being used and how it is being distributed across the park.”
Partnering to reduce waste and save money
Gagnon is one of 16 MnTAP interns spending the summer solving challenges involving water conservation, energy efficiency, pollution prevention, and waste reduction at businesses and organizations across Minnesota, including Polaris Industries, Renewal by Andersen, Agropur, Allina Health and Como Park Zoo & Conservatory.
For more than 40 years, MnTAP has partnered with Minnesota businesses and organizations to help reduce waste, improve efficiency and protect the environment. Created by the Minnesota Legislature in 1984 and housed in the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, MnTAP has helped thousands of organizations reduce costs while conserving resources.
Since 1985, MnTAP’s summer internship program has expanded the organization’s year-round technical assistance by embedding undergraduate and graduate students at Minnesota businesses and organizations for intensive, 13-week projects. Each year, MnTAP selects approximately 15 to 20 projects from proposals submitted by Minnesota businesses and organizations, then matches each project with an undergraduate or graduate student whose interests and skills are a good fit. Interns spend the summer working full time at their host sites, supported by weekly mentoring and technical guidance from MnTAP staff. Their work culminates in a detailed report outlining conservation recommendations for the host organization, as well as presentations at the annual MnTAP Intern Symposium in August.
The focus on conservation and hands-on support is what sets the program apart, said Matt Domski, MnTAP’s intern program manager. Rather than simply placing students with companies, MnTAP staff helps host organizations design projects that address pollution prevention, water conservation and energy efficiency goals, then mentors interns throughout the summer to ensure the recommendations are practical and achievable.
“We help develop the project and co-supervise it as well,” Domski said. “We’re providing more active support beyond just hiring an intern to lead the project. I think that helps us really drive forward some great solutions.”
The collaborative approach benefits everyone involved. Host organizations gain dedicated time to tackle operational challenges they may not otherwise have the staff or resources to address, often identifying practical ways to reduce costs. At the same time, students gain hands-on experience applying their classroom learning to real-world conservation challenges and building skills they’ll carry into their careers.
“One principle that guides MnTAP’s work is that in most cases, wasting less means saving money,” Domski said. “Whether it’s reducing process waste, water, or energy consumption, the same solutions that help businesses cut costs also benefit communities and the environment.”
Many Minnesota businesses have long recognized the value MnTAP can bring. “The changes implemented as a result of our partnership with MnTAP will have a positive impact on both operating costs and the environment for years to come,” noted the Saint Paul-based Sanimax company, adding that its MnTAP intern was “self-motivated, intelligent, and provided insight on items that had become status quo, but needed attention.
Metro Transit had a similarly positive experience: “”Managing the wide variety of material types in our waste system proved more challenging than we could dedicate staff time to. Not only did [the MnTAP intern]] deliver actionable solutions, but [they] also fostered an awareness of action that spread throughout our organization,” a Metro Transit employee said.
Passing down a “conservation mindset”
For Gagnon, the internship boosted his confidence and reinforced the kind of career he hopes to pursue after graduation.
“One of my favorite things about this internship was all the things I learned about myself—my strengths, my weaknesses, and how I work as an individual,” Gagnon said. “I feel encouraged based off of this work that this is something that I would love to do in the future.”
Domski added that when former interns go on to careers in engineering, manufacturing, consulting, and other fields, they carry with them something that extends beyond the technical skills they developed during their summer internship.
“Whatever pathway they’ve taken, we’ve found that our interns take a conservation mindset with them,” Domski said. “That’s something I’m hoping everyone will take forward wherever they go and whatever they do. That mindset can translate to really whatever it is they end up doing.”
MnTAP recognizes the following partners for their support of the 2026 MnTAP Intern Program: Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, Metropolitan Council Environmental Services, Xcel Energy, United States Environmental Protection Agency, and the Legislative Citizen-Commission on Minnesota Resources
