Federal Government Agency Internships

The Diversity Project, National Science Foundation (NSF) program

Mission: The Diversity Project is a 10-week research intensive educational program is designed to increase participation of underrepresented minority students in marine and evolutionary biology through an integrated research experience that combines field work on the colorful and diverse coral reefs of the Indo-Pacific with cutting edge molecular genetic research.

Julianna Jolly Renzi majored in Environmental Science and minored in Arabic and Marine Science.

For my internship program I worked with the Diversity Project, an NSF-funded program that trains undergraduate students from diverse backgrounds in marine science. I began in California learning about marine science Ph.D. programs and also got my AAUS scientific SCUBA diving certification on Catalina Island.

I traveled to Mo’orea, French Polynesia and conducted biodiversity research at the Gump South Pacific research Station and presented my finding back in California.

Saguaro National Park, National Park near Tucson

Mission: The National Park Service preserves unimpaired the natural and cultural resources and values of the national park system for the enjoyment, education, and inspiration of this and future generations.

Lia Ossanna majored in Environmental Science and East Asian Studies.

I interned at Saguaro National Park, leading volunteers in conducting saguaro surveys as a part of an ongoing vegetation monitoring project and participating in one of the many wildlife monitoring programs.

Saguaro National Park consists of two districts and collectively manages over 90,000 acres of desert. Saguaro National Park conducts saguaro surveys every ten years, but because of the National Parks Service centennial celebration, the park conducted a series of surveys to increase the community involvement with the park.

As a Citizen Scientist Intern I worked with over a dozen volunteer groups to collect data on over thirty saguaro plots that have been surveyed in previous decades. This data is used to investigate climate change effects on saguaro growth and germination at different elevations.