To wear or not to wear these clothing, that was my question everyday as a land steward intern. Most of my internship was spent outdoors doing fieldwork for habitat restoration, specifically invasive plants removal. I worked closely with my mentor Luis, the Bodega Marine Reserve steward, and Cabrilla.

My passion for wildlife, ocean ecosystems, and a love for the beach, led me to an incredible opportunity to bring that curiosity into the field through an internship at UC Davis’s Bodega Marine Laboratory (BML). I worked in the ToPEC Lab (Toxicology, Physiology, Ecology, and Conservation) under the guidance of Jordan Colby, my primary mentor throughout the program and Francine De Castro (Fran), who supported my fellow interns and me, playing a key role in our organization as a lab team.

Hello, my name is Vanessa Cordova, and this summer, I had the chance to intern at the UC Davis Bodega Marine Lab through a partnership with Santa Rosa Junior College. I am a first-generation student transferring to UC Berkeley in the fall to study Integrative Biology with an emphasis in Human Biology. I came into this internship not really knowing what to expect. I wasn't sure how it would go or what I'd take away from it.