Sea Grant Education Internships

The University of Georgia's Marine Education Center and Aquarium (MECA) is located on the north end of Skidaway Island on a 1,718-acre tract shared with the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography. This property is composed of nearly 700 acres of forest and field, 1,000 acres of salt marsh, and 18 acres of freshwater ponds. Our primary mission as an extension service of the university is to provide both formal and informal educational programs which focus on the ecology of Georgia's estuaries, coastal islands, and offshore waters. Our audience ranges from pre-kindergarten to graduate level and Elderhostel groups.

In our formal education programs, we utilize laboratories, distance learning broadcasts, lecture rooms, audio/visual materials, boats, and several field sites to teach about the various coastal ecosystems. Groups may make arrangements for half, full, or several-day experiences at the facility. We also provide two-hour aquarium and "touch tank" programs for grades K-4 on weekdays during the school year. Our program is expanding, and we now offer traveling outreach prorgams (K-4th grade) to coastal area schools.

Our internships are for recent graduates who would like some teaching experience in the marine realm and have not yet decided whether to go to graduate school or take a full-time permanent position. Interns live on site for 50 weeks in studio apartments provided rent-free by MECA. Meals are available without charge in the cafeteria whenever it is open for a visiting group. The internship is vigorous, with lots of exciting opportunities like teaching on pristine barrier islands, in the field or lab, in outreach programs, and by distance learning.

Our facility is unique. The main building houses a small public aquarium containing indigenous species, teaching labs, a lecture hall, and follow-through touch tank rooms. The rest of our facilities include a 60 person dormitory, cafeteria, docks and boats for teaching/trawling, an aquaculture research facility and a science library. Classes in marine biology and coastal processes incorporate laboratory and field classes, lectures, boat trawls, and distance learning. The public aquarium is used daily as a teaching classroom. Because our aquarium is small, we do not have marine mammals, nor do we do any marine mammal research. Our shellfish aquaculture lab next door is a research facility, but work there is not part of the internship, although sometimes our staff assists in their field work. We are on the marine mammal stranding network, so occasionally we do head out to dissect a dead mammal or assist a stranded animal.

Interns are assigned teaching duties after a 1 to 2 month training period. They are also in charge of maintaining touch tank animals and assisting staff in other specialty areas. Interns will be assigned teaching duties and will assist staff where necessary. Each intern also completes an education project for our facility. If planned in advance, an intern may receive teaching certification through our facility and their University.

Our internships are supported by the Georgia Sea Grant College Program . Currently, we select four interns for each academic year (Sept. - Aug.). Salary is $325 per week, plus free housing and free meals with groups. Application instructions are given on the page indicated below.

Application deadline for the 2008-2009 school year is April 5, 2008. Early application is encouraged, since applications received after the deadline cannot be considered. Click here for application instructions.