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Coral, Turtles, Rocks, and Electrical Shocks
Coral, Turtles, Rocks and Electrical Shocks.
Over the summer break, I worked with the Maui Ocean Center Marine Institute to complete my high school internship credit. I originally set out to learn how to apply my interests in sharks and marine life into the field. I also signed up with the hopes of learning how to scientifically go about different conservational experiments. Some tasks that I did were coral and turtle husbandry. I also learned the proper intake procedures and the importance of maintaining a clean work environment to prevent biohazards. While working on my project I also gained the community's input and opinions on coral. One of the most important tasks that I did was taking surveys of coral. This is the part of the internship that I feel I could apply the most into my life. All this was done during our meetings- 3 times a week, every week from May 11th to August 9th. We would mostly talk about the importance of coral and how everything in the ocean affects everything else.
My number one takeaway from the internship was that I don’t have to be working directly with sharks in order to make a difference for them. Since the ocean is a big mixing pot and everything more or less boils together, anything that I do to make a difference will directly help the conservation of sharks as well.
I had the opportunity to grow on a few of my 21st Century Skills over the course of the internship. Communication skills were just one of these skills. I had to communicate with my team members about the events of each day. Not only verbally, but through a shared scientific notebook as well. This allowed me to overcome some of my anxiety of talking to new people because it gave me a reason to talk to them about the work I was doing. Another skill that was expanded on were my thinking and problem solving skills. There were a couple times where there were problems in the lab that required me to think of solutions. For example there were crates that had to be moved carefully so as to not harm the coral and having to rearrange tanks so that they could be cleaned efficiently. One time in particular, I had to hypothesize how an entire tank of Yellow tangs suddenly dropped dead. One theory that I had was that it was ammonia coming from one of the airstones. I never figured out the answer, but no one did and it remains a mystery to this day. Lastly, my self directional skills were expanded on. For about a month, Dustin, my mentor, had to go out to Oregon to be with his dad. During this time, my teammates and I had to figure out what needed to be done on our own. On the days that I was completely on my own, I would go through my routine and detailedly record everything that I did in the journal.
I accomplished my goals of finishing the internship and the internship project. Some goals I feel were not accomplished were more internal than anything else. No matter how much I learned and how much experience I gained, I feel like there could have been more that I could have done and that the internship could have done for me. I believe that this is the case because I didn’t go out of my comfort zone as much as I could have. There were groups that were brought in for the last month and I actively did not participate in teaching them. It wasn’t something that I was comfortable with doing because I felt that I didn’t have enough experience myself. Maybe if I had volunteered to help with the groups more I could have gained an even more valuable experience.
The most valuable aspects of this internship were the connections I made. I got to meet a variety of people who all had interest in the ocean and other aspects of marine biology or ecology. I also learned that there isn’t a set path that people have to follow to get to where they want to be. If I ever need help or advice, I have an array of people that I can contact to either give me more connections or to just help me out with a project. I also got to learn how much is actually done in the scientific community and that it is sometimes overwhelming and over glorified, but that in the end what we do is worth it.
Some of the greatest challenges I had to overcome varied from physical injuries to talking to new people. I was shocked while standing with my feet in the water… twice. I also managed to top heavy a wheelbarrow full of lava rocks that came tumbling onto my bare foot, bruising the nervous system. (not my brightest moments). When it comes to talking to people, I came out with significantly less physical pain. During my interview, Dustin had asked me what my weaknesses were and I told him that I wasn’t the best at talking to new people. Knowing that, Dustin specifically found a project for me where I had to go and interview new people. While I may have been slightly spiteful for a moment, I realize now that he did it to help me overcome this fear. And you know what? It worked.
This experience helped me come up with different plans on how to move forward in my life. I got to talk to people of different backgrounds about how they got to the point that they are. This gave me ideas for college and how I could plan my future. Some went to college to do what they do, some just own a bunch of aquariums and are completely self taught. While there is a difference between how each of these different people go about their work, they get the work done nonetheless. Like I mentioned before, I also got connections which are exceptionally important in the scientific world. I couldn’t be more thankful for Dustin and MOCMI for letting me join them on this journey and for teaching me boundless knowledge that I will be able to apply in the rest of my career. I can’t wait to see what I get to do next.
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Photo used under Creative Commons from Martin Pettitt