College interns migrate through NOAA Fisheries Service’s Southwest Regional Office in Long Beach, California as often as the seasons change, bringing new faces, new ideas and loads of enthusiasm.

This summer, for instance, four college students passed up sunny skies and warm sandy beaches for the opportunity to work as interns and part-time employees at the regional office.

Erika Robbins is a marine biology graduate student at Duke University and assisted the Habitat Conservation Division in determining the species that require protection under essential fish habitat (EFH) guidelines in Southern California. Valuable information that she will incorporate into her master’s project at Duke.

Erika intends to apply to NOAA Fisheries Service immediately after graduation to continue her work in EFH, especially after her enjoyable internship.

"I like that this internship gave me the opportunity to work not only in the field, but in the office as well," she said.

The highlight of Erika’s internship was being in the right place at the right time when editors from Seventeen magazine called looking for a profile of a female marine biologist. After a quick conversation the editors were sold on her experience and placed her profile and photograph in the October 2005 Back to School edition of the magazine.

Lia Protopapadakis, also a graduate student at Duke University, will be Erika’s roommate this fall in Durham, North Carolina. Lia volunteered her summer to study economic impacts of fishery closures.

"It’s really great being here and getting a feel for what it’s like to work in NOAA Fisheries Service," she said. "I’m interested in how things get worked out at the international level and then get translated into action at the domestic level."

Lia will graduate in 2006 and is looking to relocate to Hawaii where she can work on international fishery issues.

Cari Wilkinson, a marine biology and zoology major on break from California State University Long Beach, worked in the Sustainable Fisheries Division and entered information to track tuna imports into the United States.

"It’s just data entry and you don’t need to be a rocket scientist to do it," she said, "but I know the connections I make here will help me in the future after I graduate."

Cari plans on applying to NOAA Fisheries Service or Fish and Wildlife Service after graduation but is also interested in teaching high school biology.

Celia Barroso, a marine biology major at California State University Long Beach, enters data on marine mammals that strand or wash ashore on the beaches in California. She is also a volunteer at the Marine Mammal Center in nearby San Pedro where she likely cares for some of the animals she enters in the database.

"This is a good experience and helpful to learn a lot from everyone around you," she said.

Celia left NOAA a few weeks before school started to study marine mammals off the San Juan Islands. She will finish her undergraduate degree in 2006 and then apply to graduate school to continue her studies in marine biology.

Now fall has arrived and a new group of interns has arrived. Kristin McCully and Rimma Osipov have come from just up the road at UCLA while Brian Owens comes from California State University Long Beach.

Whatever their school affiliation or season of arrival, these interns play an important and valuable role for NOAA Fisheries Service Southwest Region.