You’ll notice on our homepage that the purpose of the Program is to “carry on the legacy of Caleb Lumen Pungowiyi by supporting students interested in the areas of marine-related research, policy, and advocacy.”
That sentence represents a pretty big spectrum of work! Let’s hone in on these words:
- research
- policy
- advocacy
What does it mean to do research, policy, or advocacy in marine conservation? Over our next few posts, we’ll share some stories about our people from the Arctic doing work in each of these areas. This first story we’ll share is about a Caleb Scholar involved in the area of scientific research.
PART I: An Internship in SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH
Caleb Scholar Tonia Osborne, Inupiaq from White Mountain and Nome, interned this summer with the Fish & Wildlife Service on a research vessel studying sea otters. Tonia’s pursuing a BS in Marine Biology at University of Alaska Southeast, and was welcomed into the Caleb Scholars Program in January 2017. She’s also been involved with the Alaska Native Science & Engineering Program, better known as ANSEP, since middle school.
When we first met Tonia last winter, she was just beginning to put her feelers out for internships for the summer—and she was really passionate about building on her past experiences doing lab work with marine biology. She set her sights on applying to board a research vessel in the Eastern Aleutian Islands and continuing on to the Bering Sea. She knew it could be competitive to get into, so she did something really smart and explored several different internships—all focusing specifically on finding something where she could do work supporting scientists doing research. Her dedication and focus paid off, and over the summer, Tonia boarded a ship with the Fish & Wildlife Service. And what a summer she had! Read more about Tonia’s experience here.
