On a random summer afternoon, one of my professors send me an email with information about a student internship opportunity called CA NHEC 2022. I had no clue what that was about, I have never heard of it before. I read through the spreadsheet information of the internship, and I just knew that I wanted to go. Since this could be my first student internship out of mi Islita.
I sit down with my parents and explain everything, then I talk with my professor to help fill out the application process, and right there, everything started.
This past June 2022 I participated in the 8th California Environmental STEM Institute with the National Hispanic Environmental Council. It was completely paid off, so I just needed to find some clothes, and some booths and hop on an airplane.
Let me tell you, I was VERY AFRAID and INSECURE about my science knowledge and just the thought of traveling alone for the first time. Even so, I prepared my luggage and "Vamonos que es tarde!". I left Puerto Rico on a Saturday afternoon. Surprisingly, once at the airport, I felt very confident and very excited to start this 10-day internship.
I have to make a stop in Philadelphia to wait for my connected flight.. but to my surprise, my flight got canceled and there were no hotels available. So what did I do? First I let my parents know and assure them that I was okay, and then I face call one of my closest friends who accompanied me throughout the whole night and I went to explore the airport.
Once out of Philadelphia, the adventure started. I got to California very early in the morning, I call for one of the instructors at the institute to pick me up. There I waited with other Puerto Rican students who were on my flight and join with another student who arrived at the same time.
We went straight to the university dorm (CSUCI), where I met my roommate at a very inconvenient hour since it was like 4 in the morning and we needed to be up at 8:00 am that same day. Sadly, since I was tired and had a lot of stuff I made a lot of sounds entering the room that I woke my roommate, but thankfully she was very welcoming and nice. Even though she was half asleep, she even offered to help me put my things away. I went and took a cold shower and fell asleep straight away.
In the morning while we ate breakfast I met every student. There were students from different states and a lot of Puerto Ricans too. I felt relieved to have someone else who I could speak Spanish with and relate a lot more. Everyone was so nice and welcoming. After eating, we went straight to the classroom and took a lot of workshops on various themes like types of ecosystems around California (marine and dry land), the history of fires, etc. after that, we hop on a bus and went to Conejo Mountain where we had a little hike and a talk with one of the sponsors about the wildfires in California.
The next day we took seminars and workshops, to then go out to make environmental studies at 4 different locations. We were divided into four teams and we needed to rotate between doing Vegetation and wildlife, soil, water, and eDNA tests each day. At first, I thought that we were going to use very complicated equipment, but what we used was very simple and easy-to-understand instrumentation that we even had visual guides on how to use them. We collected samples at various locations on a site to later on campus analyze and do the individual test.
We visited very interesting places like King Gillette Ranch, and Las Virgenes Tapia Municipal Water Plant where we got to see their process of purifying and recycling water for human consumption. We also went to UCLA Stunt Ranch where my team did tests for wildlife and vegetation. I learned what a quadrat is and how to use them. We threw a transact to then start doing point center towards the closest tree. We also learn how to use a tool called a Hyposometer to measure the height of trees. And I also learn how to use a compass. We did so many amazing things, we walk so much under the great heat of the sun, but I enjoyed every second.
The second test we did was on Santa Cruz Island where we got the opportunity to stay on the island for 2 days. IT WAS SO AMAZING. I saw sea lions, seals, and dolphins for the first time, and I literally cry. There are such amazing creatures that deserved so much more in this world. Once on the island, we went to have a great tour of the whole island. The island is so beautiful since it is a Natural Reserved that only certain people can enter, and we got the opportunity to stay there.
My team did a water test and eDNA. For eDNA we just needed to collect some water samples and soil samples at random places. Sadly, we never got to look at the results since those were sent to a place where they run them through a database. For water, we literally went into the tidepool, where we used YIS, which is a tool or instrument that measures dissolved oxygen, pH, alkalinity, nitrogen, and phosphorous. It was so fun, to literally get wet while fighting to keep balance because of the strong waves. Even though our team was water, we also help the vegetation and wildlife do part of their test. We saw so many starfish and sea urchins and octopuses, in short, so much biological diversity in that tidepool area.
After those two amazing days on the island, we came back to the mainland where we did the last environmental study, where we did soil. We took various samples and then sit down at the site to analyze them.
Then at our last dorm, which was at the University of Riverside, we started to prepare for our final presentation, where we need to collect the data from the other teams, analyze it and do a PowerPoint to present to our mentors which they will make questions about each site, the test we made and even about the different workshops we took.
This was a 10-day intense science institute, but I would do it all over again. I love the experience, I love that I got to participate in environmental studies, to learn from different sponsors and their workplaces like the US Forest Service, USDA, etc. I love that I got a great number of field experiences but at the same time, I got the opportunity to sit down and analyze data while using various programs like R, j Image, etc. it wasn't just normal daily work. I got to do a little bit of everything. And at the same time, I learn about this huge new area in science which is Conservation. Once I came back home, I started to search and see how can I still do my passion which is animal science but with conservation and protection of both the ecosystem and the diversity that live in them.
I would recommend to EVERY student to go out and do internships or volunteer experiences even if it is not on something that you are passionate about or if you are curious about it, more reasons to actually apply and just go. And who knows what new things you can learn and what new things you can even discover about yourself and what you like, that you may end up creating new life plans and start searching for a way to make those plans true.
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