Field Days on Field Days on Field Days

Posted on June 26, 2015 by Haley

This week has been full of adventures! We started the week in Garibaldi doing visitor surveys, visitor intercepts and fishing pressure observations at Oswald West State Park. We also hiked an incredibly beautiful about 5.5 mile trail up to Cape Falcon where we saw plenty of seabirds and sea lions playing around. Following our time in Garibaldi we spent Wednesday and Thursday in Florence getting to know the town very well through business surveys. Florence is a charming town, particularly the Oldtown section of it that is full of cute little boutiques and delicious restaurants. The main reason people come to the Florence area is to play on the vast sand dunes, but this town has much more to offer than just the dunes. We got to know many of the residents of Florence doing business surveys throughout the town and I can say with certainty that I will be returning to visit! Today is a day of entering some of the immense amount of data that we have accumulated over the week into the computer. Next week we will be headed back up to Garibaldi to play, I mean “work”, some more. Until then!

A Start to my Sea Grant Summer

Posted on June 22, 2015 by Laura Gray

One week deep and I already feel more than well-acquainted with all things Oregon Sea Grant! I’ll start by introducing myself to the blog, though. My name is Laura Gray and I graduated from Oberlin College this past January with a BA in Biology and minor in Geology. My academic interests are in estuarine and coastal ecology and conservation, and I have spent time with lots of invertebrates over the past few years (scallops, oysters, an echinoderm collection, clams, freshwater crayfish). After a substantial amount of experience in monitoring and research, however, I’ve been interested in branching out to address more applied aspects of science. I’m keen on learning more about the world of science communication, education, outreach, and engagement as I move forward — so here I am, back on the west coast and working with Oregon Sea Grant!

I am an Summer Scholar and have been hired on to work under OSG Director Shelby Walker to help evaluate the effectiveness of the organization’s engaged research efforts. I’ll be spending the next couple of months sitting down for informational interviews, riding along to outreach and engagement activities, and having conversations with research and extension personnel in an effort to put together recommendations for improvement and a toolkit for better developing these programs. Unlike the other Summer Scholars, I’ll be based in Corvallis (where they even gave me a sweet office!) but will have the opportunity to travel around the state a bit.

I imagine a big part of this will involve visiting Newport, a beautiful town on the coast just west of Corvallis and home of the Hatfield Marine Science Center. I’ve already had the opportunity to visit twice in the past week, and was excited by a number of things. First of all, it was great to smell the ocean again as we drove in (I’ve been in Ohio for some time, now). This also afforded me my first look at the Oregon Coast, which was incredibly beautiful. And, most importantly, what I’ve seen of the HMSC Visitor Center so far has been fantastic.

We had a sort of meet-and-greet on Monday, where all of the Summer Scholars based in Newport got to meet their mentors and set up camp, while I got to take a brief tour of the facility and meet the Sea Grant staff who are based at HMSC. Newport seems like a neat place with a lot of recreation and commercial activity tied to coastal resources, and I was impressed by the complex of facilities around HMSC, including the EPA, ODFW, USFW, and NOAA. On Wednesday I got to return to Newport during a ride-along opportunity with personnel from the OSU Office of Extension Services as they planned their “Roads Scholars” bus tour and engagement excursion for the fall. This was a fantastic opportunity for an introduction to more extension personnel and to the types of conversations that this type of work involves. I also got to learn quite a bit about OSU programs throughout the day, including Open Campus, eCampus, and Juntos. In Newport, I got to check out the new Lincoln County Extension Office, and receive an excellent tour of the visitor center with Shawn Rowe during which we heard about the free-choice learning lab in more depth. For the latter half of the day, we drove up the (stunning!) coast to Tillamook and sat down for more Roads Scholars bus tour planning before finishing off the day at the Cheese Factory and Creamery — a sweet end to the day!

Ultimately, my first week was filled with a LOT of new introductions – to people, to places, and to the functioning of Oregon Sea Grant. I spent most of the week reading background information, scribbling in my notebook, and taking names. I’m really excited about working here this summer, and am especially happy to have a great team of people helping me out: not only Shelby Walker, but also Dave Hansen (OSG Outreach and Engagement Leader) and Sarah Kolesar (OSG Research & Fellowship Program Leader) who have extended their help and their network of contacts to me.

I can’t wait to report on more developments in the next week as I get going! You can also follow my activity on Twitter @LauraD_Gray and through the #OSGscholars feed.

Until next time.

Let the Summer O”FISH”ally begin!

Posted on June 22, 2015 by sea_abb

My first week as a Sea Grant Summer Scholar is now finished and I don’t think I could have asked for a more overwhelming, fun, and exciting start. On Monday the 15^th, I graduated from the University of Oregon and on that very next day I was studying fish species at the Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport, Oregon. Needless to say the week has been a whirlwind. Now that life has calmed down a bit, I feel like it will be easier to relax and explore the new area that I am in. I have never spent a summer in any place other than Portland (where I am originally from) so I think this will be a breath of fresh air and a great new adventure.

For the Sea Grant Program, I am currently working for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife on the Marine Reserves Ecological Monitoring Project. While I do not know exactly what the summer will bring, I am excited to be working with marine reserves which are a relatively new management option in Oregon. I am working on the same project with an REU scholarship recipient named Sara and am enjoying having a partner in crime. So far we have been learning a lot of the near shore fish species off the Oregon coast that we will potentially see in the marine reserves. All I’m going to say is I never I thought that I was done reading scientific reports when I graduated college. Unfortunately I was very wrong. It’s not too terrible though. We did get to tour the Oregon Coast Aquarium and are set to snorkel in the tanks sometime next week to sharpen our identification skills. Other than that, we have been learning to cut and score videos that are placed in the actual marine reserves as well as control areas via landers. These are basically anchors that are placed in the water with three different Gopro cameras attached and record the fish that are present in the area. Scoring has been fun but can be very tedious and the idea of fieldwork sounds more and more appealing for the following weeks.

Since I do not have a specific project that I am assigned, our supervisor Brittany has said she would like me to dip my toes in a couples different areas to get the feel of what they do on the marine reserves team. These include, sampling intertidal plots for sea star wasting disease, some GIS work for hook and line surveys, and helping to score fish lander videos. Something that she wanted me to do while working on these things was to film these experiences on a Gopro and potentially use the videos for advertising. I am beyond excited to do this and love that I can take my Gopro out in the field.

All around, the week has flown by and I cannot believe that it is already the end of June. Newport seems to be a gem of a town and a far cry from the bustle of Portland where I am originally from. I am looking forward to the experiences that will come from this internship as well as living in a new place with new people that are passionate about the same things!

New Places, New Faces

Posted on June 21, 2015 by sea_ron

Over the past year I’ve had the opportunity to become a part of a number of very different communities. These include the scientific community at the Leibniz Institut in Bremen, Germany; the international student community at the University of Essex, England; and a more adventurous community in Bodø, Norway (above the Arctic Circle). As a 2015 Oregon Sea Grant Scholar, I now have the opportunity to join the marine science community at the Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport, Oregon.

First day working for the Feds–US Environmental Protection Agency

This summer I’ll be working with Dr. Ted DeWitt and Melissa Errend at the EPA Pacific Coastal Ecology Branch Field Station. Coming into my project I thought I’d put together a pretty solid idea of what my project entailed–Ecosystem Service Transferability. Within the first two days, however, I became increasingly uncertain as to what I’m actually really doing here. By Friday morning, I had again returned to a sort of semi-clarity on my direction and summer goals. Nonetheless, I think that it will take a bit more time to really feel comfortable and engaged in the topic I’ll be addressing. For the time being, I’m reading a mountain of papers on carbon sequestration, the oceanic carbon cycle (look beneath the alcohol cabinet key), and the ability of marine environments to store anthropogenic CO2–Known as “Blue Carbon.”

My work doesn’t involve any field or lab work, but hopefully I’ll have the chance to get in the mud, the boat, or the lab with some other projects. I may not have hunted from crabs this week, but this (below) EPA-desk-find has given me a personal goal this summer–Find the Alcohol Cabinet!

What/where is the Alcohol Cabinet, and why do I have a key to it?

On a more serious note, I have two primary professional goals this summer. The first is to produce a case study on ecosystem service transferability robust enough to be incorporated in the EPA’s final report on ecosystem transferability. My second professional goal is to develop my skills in scientific communication both through social media and more standard mediums like posters and powerpoint.

So far I’ve found Oregon pretty fascinating from the ubiquity of Birkenstocks (should I buy a pair to fit in?), to the colloquial “for sure,” to drive up espresso windows. Newport is a small but busy city with lots to see and do. I’ve already sampled some of the local seafood, Oregon pink shrimp, at the famous Mo’s. Everywhere is surprisingly green, but with temperatures around 14 degrees Celsius the first day I arrived, I was pretty surprised to find the Oregon coast just as cold as Bodø, Norway. Since then, the weather has been extremely pleasant, and to my sincere surprise, there hasn’t been any rain yet. One of my first week highlights is getting to know my fellow Oregon Sea Grant Scholars and the REU students. Together we’ve already had a cookout, beach bonfire, seen Jurassic World, and spent some time identifying the local fauna. Part of our local fauna observation included an Osprey hunting in the estuary (some fish were harmed during this experience). Its pretty awesome getting to hang out with people who think talking about fish, global warming, or new scientific discoveries is cool. I know, “#nerdstatus”, but we embrace it unabashedly.

All-in-all, I’m pretty stoked for this summer and the professional and personal opportunities and challenges it will present.

As a parting gift, here is the Newport sunset

You can also keep up with me on Twitter: @ronaldtardiff and with my fellow OSG scholars by searching for #OSGscholars on Twitter.

The Beginning of an Oregrown Summer

Posted on June 21, 2015 by sea_ros

Dear Reader,

The name’s Rosalyn, and in this bona fide Oregrown summer, I am a Oregon Sea Grant Summer Scholar, privileged enough to be working with Cheryl Brown at the U.S. EPA at Hatfield Marine Science Center as a Water Quality Evaluation intern. I will be conducting research on ensuring the sustainability of water resources in the face of climate change and other human stressors. I will also be aiding in identifying the factors which result in the expression of nutrient impairments, and the results of these studies will be used to develop nutrient criteria to protect Oregon estuaries from anthropogenic nutrient inputs or to predict how water quality in estuaries may change in the future.

Within this first week, I have been out in the field (!!!!), read background context papers regarding estuarine health in surrounding areas, done extensive safety training, made a lot of new friends, made some gooooooood food, sailed in the bay, gone to the farmer’s market, gone wildlife exploring and more.

Comparing Oregon blackberry jam with California blackberry jam (Oregon’s a lot sweeter/darker). Pictured in back is walnut butter from back home, and local Oregon honey on the other.

When I’m not in Oregon, I study Wildlife, Fish and Conservation Biology, with a specialization in Aquatic Toxicology at the University of California, Davis (Go Ags!).

Research wise/Professionally, my research background and interest include marine debris, specifically plastics and synthetic materials, and its impacts on wildlife health. Generally, toxicology, aquatic health, chemical and environmental fate, and both freshwater and marine systems.

Personally, you can call me a hippie, but I love: cast iron skillets, cooking, dinghy sailing, compost, dumpster diving, spoken word poetry, discussions on gender issues, racial issues, the food system, and social justice.

…Fast forward to Oregon…

In order to effectively get things done, I have conducted SMART goals!

Professionally (2):

1) Be less awkward in a roomful of professionals in my field

2) Navigate and learn how to use twitter (?!?!)

Personal (1):

1) See, identify, and learn 25 native animals down to species level

(I’ve already gotten 6 down from our couple days of amateur birding)!

– Common Murre (saw this one while sailing) Uria aalge

– Caspian Tern, Hydroprogne caspia

– Osprey, Pandion haliaetus

– Barn Swallow, Hirundo rustica (here’s the call: http://macaulaylibrary.org/audio/105740/play)

– Ring-billed gull, Larus delawarensis

– Semipalmated plover, Charadrius semipalmatus

I definitely want to see some herps before this summer ends though, and our outing of seeing Jurassic World does not count.

Also, there’s currently only me and another OSG scholar in our dorm, and it’s great having all this space. But, we’re looking forward to our two new bunk mates arriving later today. Our dorm front is decked out (hahaha) with a long wooden deck connecting all the other dorms, a gazebo with grills for public use, a volleyball and basketball court. In the distance you can see all of our respective organizations/entities and the bay behind those. Living so close to the water is amaaaazing.

With little to no organization, here are some general thoughts about this past week:

With our first day in the EPA office, while taking a tour of the conference room, we were directed to where to find coffee and promptly asked if we drank coffee. A fellow intern mentioned she didn’t, and a passerby commented “hahaha, you will soon” and she could not have been more right.

I typically save my caffeine addiction for finals week or during our multiple midterm weeks during school. However, I’ve found it difficult to function in the workplace without multiple cups of coffee in one day. This is my first time with a full-time job, working 8-5 Mondays through Fridays, and it’s really been a reality check. I immediately began to criticize America’s thirst for “efficiency” at the expense of working people to the point of needing a substance to maintain stamina. I’m trying to go to bed earlier to combat the necessity for a cup of joe, but it’s difficult to balance working full-time with the desire to have a life, socialize, do household chores, etc. I compare it to your freshman year of college, where in the first few weeks you seriously question how people balance school work with socializing and getting involved. I suppose I’m going through a similar transition– figuring out how to navigate having a life with having a full-time job. (Which in itself is a privilege I am learning to acknowledge– that I’ve never had to balance a full-time job with other obligations. I exponentially respect students back home more, working their own way through school.)

What I’ve noticed with individuals and groups within my field, I’ve always thought was very ironic—the lack of sustainability and sustainable oriented choices. Single-use disposable utensils, plates, cups in events, lack of waste reduction/management in the office, leaving lights on when there is sufficient natural light and more. I’ve noticed this issue back home, in other areas, and now here in Oregon. I think there’s a huge disconnect between what we’re studying and the everyday. It can be acknowledged that the everyday action you may take might not “save the world” or make an enormous impact, but if every person had this mentality, isn’t this the driving force behind Tragedy of the Commons, and other concepts we study?

For example, we had a welcome barbeque with polystyrene cups, plastic water bottles and disposable plates/utensils. I found this heart-wrenching because all of us had our dorms with reusable plates and cups merely 100 feet away. In addition, doing research on polystyrene impacts on aquatic systems, my heart breaks every time Solo cups are used.

However, this just means there’s so much room for implementation. I’m hoping before I leave I can try to implement some sort of change within the office or with events associated with the programs going on.

Upon my first day of meeting my mentor, the first thing Cheryl had said to me was, “you’re on the sailing team!” and I was surprised that she knew this about me. Then, I remembered that I had put it on my resume to signify that I knew how to work with boats. We began talking about sailing and she asked if I had wanted to go out on the water in a 420 for a fun-run regatta put on by the local yacht club. I enthusiastically agreed and two days later I was out on the bay! Crewing for 420s is similar to the FJ’s I’m used to back at school, but the winds here are ridiculously better than back home. Wind was around 20 knots, with gusts up to 30 knots… so much fun. I was able to crew for Laurie, who works at NOAA as a salmon biologist. She’s one of the best skipper’s I’ve had and we had a lot of fun talking about the recent toxic algal bloom, pseudo-nitzschia, which produces domoic acid which bioaccumulates up the food chain. Afterwards, we went to the boathouse and had a BBQ with all the other sailors and I met some awesome people. Most of them work at Hatfield too, so it was awesome finding a smaller niche within a bigger community.

the boathouse

Field work was absolutely amazing. We sampled at Netarts, about two hours north of Newport, for chlrophyll a and nutrients in 7 different spots within the system. We filtered for chlorophyll a right on the boat! I’ve always only done sample collection in the field and all the processing back at the lab, so it was really really cool seeing it done a different way.

Overlooking Netarts

Chlorophyll a Filtration

It was great being out on the water for a work day. I’ve decided my future job needs to at least have a field work component.

Also, something I’ve realized I need to start coming to terms with is gender issues within the sciences. It’s great being a part of Women in Science groups and whatnot, and it’s amazing to see that women are so heavily represented in both the REU group that is here, and the Sea Grant Scholars. Something I discussed with a grad student I work with, is that even though there’s a huge influx of women in the sciences coming in, there’s still an older cohort of males in higher positions in the sciences. It’s just something that takes time to even itself out. But it’s awesome to see women representation in the sciences truly progressing. I also noticed back home though, in the freshwater fish community, it is still predominantly men. In contrast, the marine community at UCD is actually predominantly equal or more females. I wonder why this is?

Within my first week here, I’ve already experienced a gendered microaggression towards me in the workplace, to which I didn’t know how to respond. I think it’s important that coming into a field dominated by men, women need to be equipped with a mentality that the hard work that was done to get to where they are should never be invalidated by anyone, and to be prepared to stand her (or whichever pgp) ground.

Oregon’s beautiful and I absolutely love the coast. Being by the water is always such a treat. Newport’s really adorable and the working dock with seafood coming in daily is really cool. There’s a huge fishery for Oregon pink shrimp in Newport, and apparently, (I learned from Laurie) the biggest fishery for imitation crab is here in Newport. Apparently, they fish for hake, and then add a gel and coloring to make imitation crab. Interesting stuff!

Follow my twitter for day-to-day updates @SeeRosalynSea

The blog post does not reflect the views of Oregon Sea Grant, Hatfield Marine Science Center, Oregon State University, or the United States Environmental Protection Agency.

From Cornfields to Coastal Mudflats

Posted on June 21, 2015 by sea_aus

It has been roughly 12 days since I departed on my 4 day cross-country road trip from Indiana to the coast of Oregon. Many sites were seen like Medicine Bow, Winnemucca Mountain, and Crater Lake. Taking the time to see such colossal structures really made me realize how small we are in the vastness of our own country, let alone the planet.
It took 35+ hours to get to Oregon, and I’ve only been here for roughly a week, but I already feel a sense of home here. For the next 9 weeks, to my understanding, I will be working with integrating different pit trap methods for the capture of juvenile Dungeness crabs (Cancer magister) as well as the utility of using underwater video to get quality quantitative data on fish and invertebrate use of US West Coast intertidal estuarine habitats. Working this week with the USDA under my mentors, I have been very fortunate to already be getting out into the field.

Dungeness Crab (Cancer magister) caught from pit trap

This week we drove 60 miles north to Netarts, OR and checked shell bags for colonization by shellfish. We also took water quality in areas that were bare (lacked vegetation) and areas with seagrass present. Closer by (Yaquina Bay), pit traps were set up for the capture of Dungeness crabs to quantify their morphometrics to create more accurate size selection in the future. To our delight, we managed to catch several crabs, along with a few mud shrimp.

Mud shrimp that was dug up with the traps

There is no doubt that the next 9 weeks will pass by quickly, a lot will be learned and a lot of great memories are to be made. With that I hope you continue to enjoy my blogging as the weeks go by. I’m lucky to call this beautiful city and state my home for the summer. Follow me on here or via twitter @Prechtelguy93

Week One: Done

Posted on June 21, 2015 by Micaela Edelson

Tomorrow marks my first completed week as an Oregon Sea Grant Scholar. While this week has been primarily adjusting to the 9-5 work day, cooking all my own food, and the windy Newport weather, I also find it quite easy to feel as though I have been here for weeks already.

I am interning at the U.S. EPA Pacific Coastal Ecology Branch and have been data mining and compiling information related to assessing the climate vulnerability for marine organisms along the coast in an online tool called CBRAT (Coastal Biodiversity Risk Analysis Tool). I have been searching for literature that predicts estimated sea level changes. This has been more difficult than I had originally anticipated as most papers reference the IPCC’s predicted global sea level rise while I am looking for predictions specific to Pacific ecoregions. I am looking at twelve ecoregions from the Beaufort Sea in the Arctic to the Cortezian Shelf which contains the Gulf of California. So far, I have found at least one estimate for ten of the twelve ecoregions. Sea level rise is then applied to the vulnerability for marine organisms by using their life history traits and also knowledge regarding the urbanization of that region. For example, a crab that lives in the intertidal zone will be forced to move further inland due to sea-level rise but might be blocked by a wall in Southern California but will have plenty of room to move inland in the Arctic regions. The crab in Southern California will receive a relatively high algorathmic vulnerability rating for the program and thus be more susceptible to sea-level rise and climate change than the crab in the Arctic. Organisms that do not live in the intertidal zone won’t be as affected, so they will receive a low algorathmic rating for the program.

My mentor has also promised future work on ocean acidification, which I eagerly await.

This experience has not been solely working. During the evenings, I am able to relax with the other OSG scholars and with the REU students staying at Hatfield. Today students for Hatfield’s summer session are expected to arrive, so they’re will be even more people to meet! One of the highlights from this past week was going to the jetty in South Beach and building a pretty sturdy campfire. An REU student built the fire, but I was able to contribute to the fire display with lighter fluid. Other adventures include going to the Farmer’s Markets, walking the Estuary trail, and chasing Newport sunsets.

While this week has been very eventful, I expect more exciting work and free-time adventures to come over the next nine weeks. Also, my twitter handle is @EdelsonMicaela and I will be posting almost daily about my adventures here in Newport!

Exploring the Oregon Coast

Posted on June 19, 2015 by Haley

This week has been a whirlwind of information at my new job with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife looking at the human dimensions aspect of the marine reserves. I am currently writing this post from my hotel in Garibaldi, a town located a couple hours north of Newport. The graduate student I am working with named Theo and I will be heading up to Garibaldi frequently to do observational and survey research of people using the beach and boats in the reserves at Cape Falcon. My mentor says we’re basically getting paid to hang out on the beach and talk to surfers all day, so not too shabby of a gig I’ve got here right? On the drive up today we stopped at the Tillamook Cheese Factory and sampled some of the delicious cheese they produce.

We also scoped out the sites that we will be doing these studies at and they were some of the most beautiful places I’ve seen on the Oregon coast. If you ever want to try your hand at surfing then head to Oswald West State Park! There were dozens of surfers in the cove there when we arrived. Overall I am excited to head back to Garibaldi next Monday and begin doing the studies!

Prozac project changes

Posted on June 16, 2015 by Joey Peters

When I last checked in, I had just begun a pilot study that would assess how shell thickness in mussels may be affected by exposure to Prozac. Unfortunately, the experiment was a bust, mostly owing to the impractical housing conditions which stressed the animals and led to high mortality. I quickly scrapped this project, with the intention of returning to it as a side project sometime later next year. My new focus will still assess the affects of prozac on marine life, but from a completely different angle: animal behavior.

I’d like to introduce this new project by telling you how I came up with the idea. While visiting Netarts, Nehalem, and Yaquina Bay, I noticed the abundance of shore crabs living in the estuary and that they reside primarily in soft sediments, mud, and beneath rocks, never too far from the water margin. This struck me as another creature that may be at risk from contaminants as they are transported from waters upstream and adsorb onto the sediments. I wondered if these crabs were in contaminated estuaries, how would their behavior change and how would this influence food web dynamics. To my knowledge, this is a somewhat unexplored connection linking contaminants as an agent to potentially influence shifts in food webs. We often hear about bioaccumulation of contaminants up the food web, but what if contaminants also affect the behavior of animals and cause them to be more or less susceptible to predation because of abnormal behavior?

The shore crab Hemigrapsus oregonensis, has been extensively studied and their behaviors have been well documented. My aim was to assess whether crabs exposed to Prozac at 3 and 30ng/L (i.e. documented concentrations in estuaries) would be more at risk of predation when compared to unexposed crabs. Because Prozac is a psychoactive drug, it is likely that their behavior will be altered at even low levels with persistent exposure. I am conducting this experiment by creating simulated estuary habitats in 30 tanks (10 replicates for each treatment) with rocky substrate and hideouts to allow for normal predator escape/evasion behavior. We will be dosing the shore crabs every 10 days with Prozac to simulate pulse events (e.g. increased rainfall) into the estuary. The meat of the study will be the addition of the predator, the Red rock crab, to the shore crab tanks and assessing the response to the predator during the behavioral trials, which will last ~1hr. We will run these behavioral trials during the day and at night to see observe their reactions. This project will run from June 1-August 15.

We have already had the animals living in our estuary mesocosms since June 1 and we will be conducting the first set of behavioral trials next week. More developments to follow. I’m very excited about this study and I believe it is important to explore how contaminants might affect wildlife in Oregon’s estuaries should we

Welcome, 2015 Summer Scholars!

Posted on June 15, 2015 by Sarah Heidmann

Our 2015 Summer Scholars are here! They are attending orientation today at the Sea Grant office in Corvallis, then at the Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport. These seven undergraduates from around the country have been placed with federal and state agencies for the next ten weeks. In addition to supporting agency programs and initiatives, the goal is to offer students professional skills, agency workplace experience and real-life practice in marine resource science, policy, management and outreach. Check the blog next week for their introductions, and weekly from then on for updates on their progress. You can also follow them at #OSGscholars on Twitter.

The new Summer Scholars during the social media training, smartphones in hand. Yes they were asked to pull out their phones! Apologies for the dark picture

As this is my first blog post from my current position, I’ll introduce myself. I am the Summer Scholars Program Coordinator this year, drawing from my experience as a Summer Scholar in 2013. Since January, I have been helping to set up the program, including advertising, reviewing applications, interviewing, and event planning, among other things. In the fall, I am off to pursue a Master of Science in Marine and Environmental Science at the University of the Virgin Islands. Until then, I will be supporting the students and their mentors throughout the summer, helping them to achieve their goals.

Watch for updates on the scholars and their use of social media, on Twitter at @SarahLHeidmann and/or here on the blog!