A group of Ohio Sea Grant interns made a big splash on Lake Erie this summer, gaining firsthand experience addressing critical environmental issues and engaging coastal communities.

Five students participated in Ohio Sea Grant’s summer internship program from June through August, working on several different projects centered around Lake Erie, environmental research, and conservation. Interns walked away from the experience with knowledge and motivation.

“This summer was truly a transformative experience,” said summer intern Sam Holtz, a rising junior at Harvard University studying Environmental Engineering and Environmental Public Policy. “I feel blessed to have been able to make a tangible difference in my community and am excited to see what a future career in this area might bring.”

Working alongside partners around the region, the interns represented the program and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). As program ambassadors, they attended outreach events throughout the summer to engage the public and come together to promote environmental conservation. In addition, the interns participated in professional development sessions to help them become future leaders in environmental conservation, policy, and advocacy.

Extension Specialist Dr. Scott Hardy, who oversaw the interns, said the program was a “great success” and helped Ohio Sea Grant extension staff broaden the impacts of their work and their research.

“It introduced a group of motivated young people to real-world environmental issues and the individuals and organizations that are currently working diligently to address them,” Hardy explained.

For Holtz, her internship involved working with the Freshwater Institute of Cuyahoga County and the Student Conservation Association, exploring the importance of water stewardship through different projects. She worked on literature reviews on microplastics and health for a bioregional forum, reworked public outreach materials on water conservation, and partnered with educators to bring environmental science into local classrooms.

“The experience really opened my eyes to how much the ‘water economy’ is about people, not just industry or policy,” Holtz said. “I was privileged enough to interact with some of the roughly 4 million Ohioans who get their drinking water from Lake Erie and listen to their stories.”

Holtz said some of her fondest memories from the summer include the Veterans Memorial Bridge outreach event in Cuyahoga County, where she and others were able to reach hundreds of community members, as well as papier-mâchéing costumes of invasive species for the Ohio State Fair.

“I am much more confident in my Lake Erie knowledge than when I first started. I got the chance to shadow many different environmental professionals and learn from all of them.”
Grace Telesz

Another intern, Jingning Zhu, a rising senior geological sciences major at Case Western Reserve University, contributed to an Ohio Sea Grant research project led by Dr. Beverly Saylor of Case Western. She assisted with geochemical and mineralogical analysis of Lake Erie sediment cores to understand environmental changes in the lake.

“We’re utilizing all sorts of tools and dating methods to tell a better story of what has happened in the last hundred years of the lake’s history,” Zhu said. “The internship definitely helped me become more organized and gave me a peek into what working in this field would look like.”

Zhu said she mainly focused on analysis of one sediment core, and she was able to learn the mechanisms of how everything worked in Saylor’s lab. She also helped produce a fact sheet and an educational video about the project that are in the works.

“I very much enjoy the idea of communicating science to the public,” Zhu said. “Translating all the hard science bits into easy-to-understand language is really important.”

Grace Telesz, a rising senior studying environmental science at the University of Pittsburgh, worked with Ohio Sea Grant program partners and Plastic Free Cleveland on the BOTtttle Project, which stands for Beach and On-water Trash Trapping Tech Team for Lake Erie and focuses on marine debris.

In her internship, Telesz worked with trash-trapping robots and participated in monthly beach clean-ups with the Adopt-a-Beach program. She also worked with national nonprofit The Surfrider Foundation on their Great Lakes Friendly Restaurants program to help educate people and reduce plastic pollution in the Great Lakes. She sought out and tested plastic-free products, compiling her results in a document that will hopefully help restaurants in the region find alternatives without plastic.

“I am much more confident in my Lake Erie knowledge than when I first started,” Telesz said. “I got the chance to shadow many different environmental professionals and learn from all of them.”

Other interns this summer included Ren Harris, a Case Western graduate who also contributed to Saylor’s sediment core project, and Len Rincon Martinez, a rising Case Western senior who worked with the Cuyahoga River Area of Concern (AOC) Advisory Committee, focusing on community engagement and environmental outreach within the watershed.

Interns added that the professional development aspect of the internship was tremendously helpful for learning how to navigate their burgeoning careers.

“I am incredibly grateful to have had Dr. Hardy as a mentor this summer,” Holtz said. “He went above and beyond with the interns, diving into questions about our future career plans, introducing us to key scientists in our respective fields of interest, and pushing us all to explore the value of community in our work.”

“Dr. Hardy did a great job of introducing the interns to the environmental professional world as well as asking us questions about our future goals and plans,” Telesz said. “These questions forced me to consider my future and what I want to do after I graduate.”

To learn more about Ohio Sea Grant’s internship program, contact Dr. Scott Hardy at hardy.116@osu.edu.

Ohio Sea Grant is supported by The Ohio State University College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences (CFAES) School of Environment and Natural Resources, Ohio State University Extension, and NOAA Sea Grant, a network of 34 Sea Grant programs nation-wide dedicated to the protection and sustainable use of marine and Great Lakes resources. Stone Laboratory is Ohio State’s island campus on Lake Erie and is the research, education, and outreach facility of Ohio Sea Grant and part of CFAES School of Environment and Natural Resources.