By Gabbie Buendia (Rollins College) and Emily Rau (University of Wisconsin-Madison) Our main focus this summer was working with the Rain Gardens to the Rescue program. This program teaches interested Detroit residents about the benefits and construction of rain gardens. Once residents graduate from the program, Friends of the Rouge and Sierra Club assist them in Read more

By Ryan Nelson, Wesleyan University. Like most kids, I was fascinated with water. From hosting car window raindrop drag races on road trips with my siblings, to spending every summer weekday at the pool (my mom called it her daycare-in-disguise), to reverting the backyard into mud by treating it like a slip-in-slide after every large Read more

By Jannice Newson, University of Missouri. This summer, I spent my time as an intern at the Great Lakes Commission (GLC), working on their Blue Accounting Program’s Source Water Initiative under program manager Nicole Zacharda. The Source Water Initiative is one of the six projects that currently comprise the Blue Accounting information system. This project looks Read more

By Trina Dhar, Barnard College. This summer, I interned at the Huron River Watershed Council (HRWC), a local nonprofit organization that is dedicated to protecting the Huron River located in southeastern Michigan. A large aspect of my job was going outside and collecting data. I joined the creek walking interns to walk along tributaries of the Huron Read more

By Malia Molina, Carleton College. It was three days before my second summer with the Doris Duke Conservation Scholars Program and I was excited to say the least. Not only to see the friends I had made last year, but also to once again be a part of a program that so seamlessly integrated all Read more

By Jenny Par, Loyola University Chicago. This summer, I worked at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory (GLERL) with Dr. Ashley Elgin and Dr. Ed Rutherford. This was my second year working as an intern at NOAA GLERL.  In both years, my project focused on invasive dreissenid mussels (i.e., quagga and zebra mussels).  Read more

By Danielle Moni-Zo’obo, Hamilton College. As the start of my internship at the Michigan League of Conservation Voters (MLCV) loomed ahead of me, I was both nervous and excited to intern for an organization whose work coincided with my own interests. From what I had gathered from previous online research on the organization and through conversations with Read more