C-StREAM Participation in CERF Rising TIDES Program

 

Two-time C-StREAM fellow, Nick Coleman, was recently awarded funding to attend the Coastal and Estuarine Research Federation (CERF) biennial conference through the Rising TIDES (Toward an Inclusive, Diverse, and Enriched Society) initiative. The Rising TIDES Conference Mentoring Program will support fourteen underrepresented minority student and mentor pairs to participate in CERF’s biennial conference in Mobile, Alabama.

Coleman, a senior at Coastal Carolina University (CCU), plans to graduate in December 2019. His research at CCU is conducted under Dr. Erin Burge and focuses on the association between round scad and sand tiger sharks, observed through underwater video observations off the coast of Wilmington, North Carolina. At the Spring 2019 Southeastern Estuarine Research Society (SEERS) conference, he received the Best Undergraduate Poster Award for the results he presented based on this research.

After graduation, Coleman is starting a master’s program in fisheries at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, Chesapeake Biological Laboratory with Dr. David Secor. Coleman credits the C-StREAM program with facilitating connections and growing his network of scientists in the Chesapeake Bay area.

“My fellowship at C-StREAM put me in contact with Dr. Secor and that contact resulted directly in this graduate opportunity,” explained Coleman. “One of the best things that C-StREAM provides and something that distinguishes it from other programs is that it not only provides opportunities for fieldwork during the summer, but it also carries into the school year.”