by Hannah Webber, Marine Ecology Director
First fireflies over Rockefeller field. First ripe blackberries on the Alder Trail. First meteor shower, tidepool, black-throated green warbler, red spruce. Schoodic Institute has been a place of firsts for many people through time, whether guests, visitors, citizen scientists—or early career science technicians and interns.
This is a place of inspiration, and we are thrilled to be joined by a variety of young scientists/stewards/naturalists/communicators/educators to assist with inspiring science, learning, and community for a changing world.
Our ecology technicians, employed from June through October, are typically recent college graduates, or returning technicians from previous years.
Interns are usually, but not always, college students with us for a portion of the summer, exploring career options as they work on specific projects. (Although, all techs and interns will be working on loads of different things, to be sure!)
The technicians and interns will be on the top of Cadillac, deep in the forest, in the intertidal—with calipers, clipboards, cameras—and the most important tools of all: cheerful curiosity and a willingness to dive right in. They are critical hands, hearts, and heads; we cannot do the work without them.
Welcome to the 2021 team (with their institution and home town)
Schoodic Institute Technicians:
Emily Jackson, University of Maine, Casco, ME
Shannon O’Brien, University of Maine, Palmetto, FL
Hanae Garrison, Oberlin College, Maplewood,NJ
Tessa Houston, Colby College, Yarmouth, ME
Interns:
Anna Lee, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, Buffalo, NY
Jess Moskowitz, Mount Holyoke College, Waban, MA
Sophie Chivers, College of the Atlantic, Niwot, CO
Elizabeth Halasz, University of Richmond, Columbia, SC
Ben Capuano, College of the Atlantic, Mercer Island, WA
Capstone students:
Ryan Avery, University of Southern Maine
Northeast Temperate Network Technicians:
Jamie Attanasio – Forest Monitoring Technician
Diana Gurvich – Forest Monitoring Technician
Marcos Rodriguez – Plant Ecology Technician
Calla Spoko – Forest Monitoring Technician
The name Schoodic probably comes from the Mi’kmaq word eskwodek—“the end.” Where there are ends there are beginnings. Today we celebrate the beginning of the Schoodic adventure that awaits our technicians and interns. And we celebrate the fresh eyes and perspectives they bring to our work.