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!
Photo of Willow Lewis, Animal Education Intern pictured holding Fiona, “Golden” Greek Tortise Animal Ambassador at Cayuga Nature Center.
Photo of Heli Makani, Summer Intern at PRI, 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.
Photo of Gabby DeSanto, Summer Intern at PRI.
Photo of Richard Gutierrez pictured with a Coelophysis statue, also known as the Museum of the Earth’s Mascot, Cecil, outside the entrance of the Museum of the Earth.
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.
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!