This summer marks the seventh year Clark University students will put their education into practice through fellowships with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Through a collaboration with the University’s Mosakowski Institute for Public Enterprise and George Perkins Marsh Institute, NOAA has invited three Clark undergraduates to conduct research at sites in Florida, Maryland, and Massachusetts.
This year, for the first time, all of Clark’s NOAA fellows will be mentored by the same professor. Karen Frey, associate professor of geography, will work with the students to ensure they are getting the most out of their NOAA experiences. The three were introduced at a May 1 luncheon held at the Mosakowski Institute.
“This program places [our students] in NOAA facilities all around the country,” explained James Gomes, director of the Mosakowski Institute. Previous NOAA fellows attended the reception as guests and advised the students to take advantage of the agency’s resources, including seminars and mentoring opportunities.
Robert Johnston, director of the Marsh Institute, stressed that the students would be gaining valuable experience in work that’s critically important. “Take it all in,” Johnston advised.
This year’s Marsh-Mosakowski NOAA Fellows are:
- Anthony Himmelberger ’19, an environmental science major, who will assess loggerhead sea turtle nesting activity along the Cape Romano Complex Beaches in Naples, Florida.
- Sophie Spiliotopoulos ’20, a geography major, who will work in Silver Spring, Maryland, on the project titled “Identifying and Summarizing Research: Marine Mammal Life History Traits.”
- Jess Strzempko ’20, an environmental science major, who will work in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, to conduct age and growth studies of endangered Atlantic salmon.
