There Might Actually be Nothing I Haven’t Done at my Internship

Hey y’all! I’m Brady Blackburn, one of the students studying at the Outer Banks Field Site this semester. All of us here are interning with several different organizations, and I think mine just might be in the running with Cinnamon’s for the “best internship of the year award.”

My internship experience is like a breakfast buffet. I get to sample everything I like…but I have to wake up early to go to it.

I’m splitting my time between two different organizations—North Carolina Sea Grant and The Nature Conservancy—because I gave Corey Adams, the internship coordinator here, the difficult task of finding something where I can hone my writing skills and work outside. Those two unfortunately don’t fit together very well.

At Sea Grant I’m blogging about our oyster aquaculture capstone project. I’m working with E-Ching Lee, their managing editor, to write articles every couple weeks about the process and results of our study. It is a great experience in the field that I eventually want to go into when I graduate. Better yet, I get to write and then turn around and go outside.

With the Nature Conservancy, I’m working with Aaron McCall, the northeast regional steward for North Carolina at the Nags Head Woods Ecological Preserve. I get to do a little bit of everything on this side of my internship—from trail maintenance to researching fresh water pond management practices.

Just last week, I cut trees along the power line that runs through the Conservancy’s property, re-painted a section of a shed, and worked on writing an advertisement article all in one day.

I’ve also gotten to help measure tree growth in the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge, build and install wells to measure water level in the Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge, and much more.

So, as you can see, I’m getting the $10.98 all-you-can-eat special out of this internship experience.