Meet the Lloyd Center’s Summer Program Interns!
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Samantha Medeiros is a graduated senior from Greater New Bedford Regional Vocational Technical High School (GNBRVTHS). Samantha is furthering her education at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth in Biology. As an intern during the school year, with the Lloyd Center being her placement, Samantha would assist during the various in-school programs and help feed and maintain the aquaria.
“While educating students in the programs, I learned a lot as a student myself. When I was offered the summer internship, I was thrilled to stay a part of the team because it’s such a great environment.” stated Samantha enthusiastically. “Being a summer intern at the Lloyd Center for the Environment is the best hands-on experience. Currently I am helping teach the Young Naturalist Programs. These programs allow the kids to explore nature surrounding them. We’ve had fun doing activities, trail walks, and crafts. I start off by helping out in the morning with set-up for the program usually by making copies and gathering supplies for our crafts. While assisting the instructor, I make sure the kids are practicing social distancing along with wearing a mask when together. I also sanitize everything to make sure everyone stays happy and healthy.
So far, my favorite lesson was teaching the kids during our In the Sky program. We taught about birds of prey, raptors such as osprey, owls, hawks, falcons and eagles. We presented Koko, the resident screech owl, to the kids as we informed about her camouflage, diet, and her background which overall is very exciting. Between the raptors’ traits and what they eat, these birds are quite interesting. It’s funny because as I continue to help during each lesson, I learn different things from the students! For example, I didn’t know that the fastest flying bird was the Peregrine falcon – it flies really high and can dive down at over 200 miles per hour! I can’t wait to see what the upcoming weeks bring!”
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Hannah Oliver recently graduated from the Environmental Engineering shop at Greater New Bedford Regional Vocational Technical High School. Hannah will be attending Roger Williams University in the fall and plans to major in Marine Biology. During her senior year at GNBRVTHS her placement was at the Lloyd Center.
“The Center is a wonderful place to learn all about life in the water, on land and in the air. I learned a lot during my placement. When the Center’s staff asked me to come back this summer as a program assistant, I was very excited and had to join right away. I’m happy to be spending my last few months at the Lloyd Center doing what I love, spending time near the water.” commented Hannah. “The Coastal Studies Program are the programs that I have been helping out with. These programs have been fun and I have learned so much in a short amount of time! My responsibilities consist of setting up in the morning, disinfecting everything with bleach solution, helping the children with whatever they might need, making sure everyone is 6 feet apart or has a mask on, and cleaning up in the afternoon, and disinfecting again. The most important thing is that the kids are safe, so whatever I can do to help keep them safe I will do it!
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The program I assisted with last week was Green Machines. During the week the kids taught me a lot of things I hadn’t learned or heard of before; an example of this would be the ROVSs on Mars. I had never really learned about them. The kids in my group were very knowledgeable about the ROV’s. I also had a lot of fun going crabbing down at the estuary although we didn’t catch anything it was still great! I can’t wait until the Marine Biology program with Mr. Steve, it’s going to be a lot of fun!”
