Four C-StREAM Program Students Have Productive Summer Internships

This past summer, CRC and the Chesapeake Bay Program partnership funded four internships for undergraduate students to conduct Chesapeake Bay-related research and management activities.

From left to right: Ashley Duncan, Mackenzie Bodman, and Ben Anderson. Not pictured: Nicholas Coleman

Nicholas Coleman studies at Coastal Carolina University and was the only student to intern outside of the Chesapeake Bay Program Office (CBPO). Instead, Nicholas spent his summer at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) in Edgewater, Maryland. He is majoring in Marine Science and minoring in Biology. In his research at his home institution, Nicholas identifies fish species from video footage and writes species profiles summarizing what he finds. His research conducted at SERC focused on the connectivity of the Chesapeake Bay tributaries, and how the Bay is related to the greater Atlantic seaboard. In addition, he was able to network and meet many other senior scientists who advised him on future research projects and career paths. He plans on using the skills and resources he gleaned over the summer on his own independent research project at Coastal Carolina.

Ben Anderson is a senior at University of Maryland majoring in Environmental Science and Policy and minoring in Sustainability Studies. Throughout the summer, in his GIS position at CBPO, Ben worked on various GIS projects, including analyzing forest loss over time in Maryland counties in order to provide the Maryland House of Delegates with statistics on the state of Maryland forests, writing Python scripts to automate file organization, and performing his own project on GIS mapping and environmental justice. At UMD, Ben works in an urban ecology lab, teaching lessons to students about plants and mounting and labeling plant specimens for UMD’s Norton-Brown Herbarium.

Mackenzie Bodman is a senior at UMBC majoring in Environmental Science and Geography. She helps develop environmental science curricula for K-8 students at OUR Schools, a program that brings STEAM education to Baltimore schools. Mackenzie found her work at the Chesapeake Bay Program Office this summer was fulfilling and fun. She learned about policy and science around the Chesapeake Bay, and the importance of an interdisciplinary approach. In her work, she analyzed a small tidal tributary located within the Chesapeake bay watershed and how it has changed over forty years, as well as beginning to analyze dissolved oxygen over time for a segment in the Chesapeake.

Ashley Duncan is a senior at Howard University graduating this December with a BS in Biology and a minor in Chemistry. In her environmental justice and outreach position at CBPO, Ashley worked closely with Jim Edward of EPA and Darius Stanton of CRC. In her past research, Ashley focused on urban heat island effects on lichen diversity in Washington, DC, and even had the chance to speak at the Mobilize Green Conference in DC. When she’s not pursuing issues in environmental justice, Ashley serves as the captain of the lacrosse team.