Mentors, Research, and Marine Science: SRJC Interns at BML
Quick Summary
- Santa Rosa Junior College Students learn fieldwork, research, and science communication during summer internships at the Bodega Marine Laboratory.
For over a decade, the SRJC-BML Internship Program has offered Santa Rosa Junior College (SRJC) students hands-on research opportunities at the UC Davis Bodega Marine Laboratory (BML). This program connects junior college students with UC Davis graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and staff mentors across a range of scientific fields. Mentor-mentee pairings are carefully designed based on pre-survey responses to align students’ interests with areas of study, such as marine ecology, science communication or invasive species research at the Bodega Marine Reserve.
“These internships are a great way for students to find out whether science and research are the paths for them and how they want to continue,” says Serina Moheed, one of this year’s co-directors and a third-year PhD student in the Stachowicz and Brown labs. Moheed and Claire Murphy, a PhD student in the Stachowicz lab, co-direct the program, supporting interns as they gain experience in fieldwork, research presentation, and professional development. The program’s co-director model ensures continuity by pairing each new director with an experienced predecessor, contributing to the program’s ongoing success.
Recently expanded to support 14 students, the program offers stipends and transportation reimbursements for the SRJC students, made possible through donor support, and hopes to gain enough financial support to expand the stipend program to include the mentors at BML in the future. The program emphasizes flexibility, allowing students to balance work and family commitments while participating in time-sensitive fieldwork in environments like tidepools and mudflats. As a final component, students hone their science communication skills by writing blogs about their research, creating a professional portfolio piece and resume item that reflects their internship accomplishments.
Read about the 2024 summer internship cohort's experiences in their own words:
Eelgrass Buffet: Experiencing Eelgrass Research at the BML
- by Miles Johnson
Learning How Birds Have Foraged Their Way Into Talitrid Amphipod Ecology
- by Arden Hiatt
Exploring Eelgrass and Expanding Horizons
- by Angelina Leal
A Summer in Sustainable Aquaculture
- by Jackson Hargreaves
Digitizing History at Bodega Marine Laboratory’s Cadet Hand Library
- by Parker Stagnoli
Summertime in The Coastal Prairie
- by Cabrilla Wiecek
An Unforgettable Experience at BML
- by Elijah Lewin
A Dive Into the Abalone World
- by Alina Santamaria
Growth of Snails and a Person
- by Natalie Kozlowski
My Summer Internship at the Bodega Marine Lab
- by Jack Dalton
Discovering Field-work and Stewardship: My Journey at Bodega Marine Lab
- by Akshey Singh
Drawing Attention to the Science at BML
- by Sophia Chin
The Exploration of Thermal Ecology
- by Katrina Anderson