This summer has been such an amazing experience. I had a great mentor during my time at EDF and I joined a team that was welcoming and supportive since the first minute we met. I was given time to check in with other people from different teams across EDF who my mentor thought would be great to chat with based on what my interests were. I was given lots of advice and learned that there are organizations in the world that do what I dream of doing in my career.

I’ve learned the what kind of workplace I enjoy and also what kind of workplace I don’t feel is the best fit for me (remote work is hard). I think one of the biggest pieces I’ll be taking with me from this summer is just knowing that at least EDF is transparent about their work than I initially believed. I know organizations always say their transparent, but how do we really know? This has always been something I’ve been cautious about when looking at where I am getting my information and where I am considering working. Now that I have worked at EDF, I understand that the organization, or at least the Oceans teams, are incredibly transparent about what their doing and how their doing it. As well as simply how inclusive the organization is striving to become, not only internally with their employees, but how they go about projects and making sure stakeholder involvement is at an all time high.

From the weekly team meetings to the behind the scenes look into how EDF works, I’ve enjoyed every minute of my time at EDF and couldn’t have imaged a better place to learn and grow this summer.

Hello Hello! I had the opportunity to present my main projects during my time at EDF with the entire Oceans team. Was it nerve wracking? Yes. Right before my first presentation about my policy memo on the UN Shared Stocks Agreement, I realized who I was really presenting to. I was surrounded by a group of incredibly knowledgeable and experienced people who are out in the world doing important things. But once that initial thought came and went, I began to tell myself, everyone here is quite similar to me. We are all striving for new and innovative ways to protect our oceans and make sure people can use its resources for generations to come.

Once I calmed myself down a little, it was time for me to present. It was so exciting getting to share my analysis and how EDF’s Fishery Toolkit could be useful on a larger scale to help fisheries of all sizes comply with the Agreement and its recommendations. I received great feedback and even a few great questions!

My second presentation was to the Fishery Solutions Center team. I presented on my work to help the Capacity Development team with the creation of the new and improved Fishery Toolkit website. This was such a fun project! I had the opportunity to learn so much about a decent portion of the tools EDF shares with stakeholders, fishers, and fishery managers to help them in the transition to more sustainable practices. I even got to take one of the stories on how the tool had been used in the real world from beginning to end. I also learned how to use a web design platform called Drupal, which was the hardest part of my fellowship. I, by no means, have any design skills and the platform was incredibly technical. Overall, this presentation was met with such great responses and everyone was excited to see the website once it’s officially launched!

Hello everyone! This summer I’m working with the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) as their Climate Resilient Fisheries Tools Intern. EDF is doing amazing work to help strength small-scale fisheries against climate change.

This summer I’m on the Capacity Development team within the Fishery Solution Center. My main project this summer is to help develop the new Fishery Solution Center website. I’ve been conducting interviews with regional team leaders and local stakeholders within these regions to learn how the fishery tools are being utilized in the field. After I am done conducting these interviews, I’ll be developing stories for the launch of the new website. These stories will highlight the regional team and stakeholders while explaining the science of these tools and how they work.

Another project I’ve been tackling this summer is writing a policy memo of the United Nations’ Straddling Fish Stock Agreement to analyze where climate resiliency language can be added. This memo will also include locating where within the Agreement text EDF’s climate resilient fisheries tools can be the most useful.