Summer Intern Spotlight (2022)
By Areya Muraca, Integrated Marketing Manager at PRI, Staff, and Summer 2022 Interns
Published July 2022
Between PRI and its venues, Museum of the Earth and Cayuga Nature Center, PRI staff works with numerous interns on a variety of projects throughout the year. This summer, PRI interns are working in-person and remotely, doing everything ranging from identifying fossils specimens in the Museum’s Prep Lab, to creating virtual fieldwork experiences that may help people understand how the asteroid impact at the end of the Cretaceous Period changed marine ecosystems, or even doing hands-on education with Animal Ambassadors! For #NationalInternDay this year, we are highlighting some of our awesome interns and the incredible projects they are working on.
Meet our interns!
Willow Lewis, Animal Education Intern, Cayuga Nature Center
Willow is an Ithaca native, and is currently a sophomore at Cornell's Engineering school, majoring in Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. Willow is working on digitizing the Cayuga Nature Center's database of animal information. This includes recording detailed information about all of the animal ambassadors at the Nature Center and noting enrichment opportunities for all of them as well, to ensure they are receiving the best care based on their day-to-day needs.
Willow is also leading animal programs during summer camp at the Nature Center and during public programs, both with the help of the amazing animal ambassadors, of course! Her favorite animals to take on programs are the ferrets, Venus & Serena.
Fun fact: Willow enjoys sewing, play board games, and roller skating with friends!
Photo: Willow Lewis, pictured holding Fiona, “Golden” Greek Tortoise Animal Ambassador at Cayuga Nature Center.
Heli Makani, Education Collection Intern, Museum of the Earth
Heli is a Geology major with a minor in Biology at SUNY Oswego, interning with Maureen Bickley, Museum Education and Prep Lab Manager at Museum of the Earth. Heli’s main project for this summer is curating rock and fossil specimens for PRI’s Education Collection. Heli says, “My first visit to PRI was during Spring 2022 as a class trip. It got me really interested in learning more about the functioning of Collections.”
As an intern, Heli transports rocks to storage, updates PRI’s database, and assists with identifying and rehousing specimens. Heli interns in-person 4 days a week and works remotely one day where she is putting together a reference document covering how to correctly house and box specimens.
Heli mentioned, “I will be a first semester sophomore in Fall 2022 so, I am yet to be sure what I actually want to do in paleontology. However, here at PRI, and learning from Maureen has helped me understand many aspects of this field, and I am really grateful for this amazing opportunity!“
Maureen Bickley, Museum Education and Prep Lab Manager, is grateful for Heli’s help too, “I have an awesome intern this year. She stepped into a mess that was piling up in storage for several years as we accumulated fossils and rocks. There is still much work to do, but she will have us in a great place when she returns to school at SUNY Oswego in the fall.”
Photo: Heli Makani, attending one of PRI’s Summer Fossil Collecting Field Trips. During the trip she helped the public learn about the local fossils, collected fossils for the Fossil Lab in the Museum of the Earth, and experienced some NY fossil collecting herself too!
Gabby DeSanto, Project Intern, PRI
Gabby is from Brooklyn, NY, and is currently studying Geological Sciences at George Washington University. Gabby is currently working remotely for her internship this summer at PRI.
Gabby’s main focus for this internship is to help PRI’s Climate Team develop new content and update online content for PRI’s climate change efforts, specifically focusing on the Museum of the Earth’s climate change exhibit.
Richard Gutierrez, Cretaceous-Paleogene Boundary VFE Intern, PRI
Richard is a Cornell University student from Miami, Florida, and has always loved everything prehistoric since he was a baby.
Richard is interning remotely and is focused on creating an online virtual fieldwork experience (VFE). Richard’s VFE will help VFE visitors explore field localities in the Gulf Coastal Plain (especially Mississippi) where researchers such as PRI's Director, Warren Allmon, are studying how the asteroid impact at the end of the Cretaceous Period changed marine ecosystems.
Richard is working closely with PRI’s Associate Director for Outreach, Rob Ross and PRI’s Director of Teacher Programming, Don Haas, on writing text, choosing photos from the field, and using maps to tell the story both of the mass extinction event and the process of doing the science.
Fun fact: When Richard is not creating VFEs, you might find him out walking his dog, Scooby!
Photo: Richard Gutierrez pictured with Coelophysis, outside of Museum of the Earth. Coelophysis is also known as Cecil, the mascot of the Museum of the Earth, and the dinosaur used in the Museum of the Earth logo.
PRI is working on a new project called, “The Insects of the Cayuga Lake Basin,” which includes compiling an up-to-date list of the insects found within the local bioregion. Such a list has not been available since the M. D. Leonard et al. 1928 publication of A List of the Insects of New York. The goal is to produce a dynamic centralized database of the region's species that can continue to grow as more research is done. There are two interns working with PRI’s IT Manager/Entomologist, Brian Gollands, on this project this summer, Jennifer Campos and Ethan Greenberg.
Jennifer Campos, Biodiversity Collections Assistant, PRI
Jennifer is a SUNY ESF graduate who is collecting specimens and curating a reference collection for research, display, and new species records for the Insects of the Cayuga Lake Basin project.
Ethan Greenberg, Biodiversity Data Assistant, PRI
Ethan is a Cornell University student, and for the Insects of the Cayuga Lake Basin project, he is preparing the old printed data from Leonard's list for input into a modern digital database.
Ryan June, Video Editing Intern, PRI
Ryan is working with PRI’s Associate Director for Outreach, Rob Ross, to construct and edit a YouTube video of the geology of Taughannock gorge, using a variety of video clips taken over the past year by PRI Staff.
Ryan went to Trumansburg Central School District, located just a few miles from PRI and Museum of the Earth. Ryan also attended TST BOCES to study Digital Media Technology. Ryan says, “The art of content creation drives me to push my skills every day.”
Kade Bonnell, Research Assistant, PRI
Kade is a Research Assistant working with Jaleigh Pier, a Cornell University PhD student who is working with PRI's Director of Collections, Greg Dietl. Kade is from Merrill, Wisconsin and holds a bachelors in Biology from the University of Wisconsin Stevens Point.
This summer Kade is helping Jaleigh process oyster reef cores (describing them, washing samples, sorting shells, and measuring oysters for data collection) from northeast Florida as part of her PhD dissertation research. Kade and Jaleigh’s goal is to collect data about oysters from the past to help inform management decisions in the future.
Fun fact: Kade’s favorite dinosaur is Argentinosaurus!
Photo: Kade Bonnell standing in front of a dinosaur skeleton (not Argentinosaurus)
Neil Pezzoni, Collections Intern at PRI
Neil is a Geosciences major at Virginia Tech. This summer Neil has been assisting both the Collections and Science Communications teams with curating fossil collections and creating 3D photogrammetry scans of Devonian specimens from our Research Collection and Museum of the Earth exhibits. Below are two of Neil’s favorite 3D scans that he has produced this summer.
Photo: Neil Pezzoni creating a 3D model of a Devonian trilobite pygidium (tail).
Fun Fact: Neil is a part-time Wikipedia editor working to create and expand articles on prehistoric life.
Lili Gunderson, Collections Intern at PRI
Lili is an Environmental Studies major at SUNY Plattsburgh, who is working with the PRI Collections team this summer to integrate newly cataloged specimens into PRI's Research Collection.
Fun fact: Lili knows how to unicycle!
Photo: Lili Gunderson working with a drawer of specimens in the Collections Department at PRI
The PRI staff is grateful to work with so many wonderful interns each year, and we would not be where we are today without them! Thank you for all that you do for science, communications, and beyond!
For more information about internships, work studies, and volunteer opportunities contact PRI’s Community Engagement Coordinator, Rob Katz.
Your contribution helps us support opportunities for students, programs for the public, preservation of specimens, care for our animal ambassadors, & so much more! Thank you for your support!
Want to intern at PRI, Museum of the Earth, or Cayuga Nature Center? Check out open internship opportunities!
Interested in helping out in a different way? Explore our volunteer opportunities!