Interns and Volunteers
Interests
Thanks for visiting our lab page. We occasionally accept undergraduate interns and volunteers to assist with various projects, lab tasks, and data analysis. Please read the following before contacting us.
Internships and volunteer opportunities are a great way to gain research experience. Studying marine biology is lots of fun, but is also very heavily reliant on data analysis and technical lab tasks. Field work, while a major component of our work, does not always occur on a daily basis and often requires prior training (e.g., SCUBA/snorkel/boating certifications, etc.).
Interning and volunteering provide students the chance to assist graduate students, post-docs or researchers during data collection and/or data analysis. They are great opportunities to learn about computer programming, new technologies, and other tools used in our lab.
To figure out if the kinds of things we do in our lab excite you, browse the rest of this website, particularly the pages on our lab's current research and pages of individual people working in the lab. If you're interested in what you see and would like to get involved, read on.
Expectations
Whether we are able to accept interns and volunteers depends on the particular projects that are going on at any given time. For example, if we do not have active projects that require assistance, we will not be able to accept interns or volunteers.
When we are accepting interns and volunteers, we are looking for students who will integrate well with others in the lab. We all work together and assist each other on a variety of projects. You will be joining a team and we want to ensure that your work philosophy is a good fit for us. We expect interns and volunteers to be good colleagues to others in the lab, have a positive attitude, be open to constructive criticism, and to be proactive learners and independent thinkers.
As an intern or volunteer, you will be responsible for all costs associated with your stay (flight, housing, food, transportation). HIMB offers student housing that requires prior authorization from the hosting laboratory. If you are a non-US citizen, you will also be responsible for your own visa application if it is required.
Interns and volunteers in the lab are expected to commit to spending at least 10 hours per week working in the lab for at least two terms.
Process
If, after reading the above, you think you would be a good fit in the lab and would like to intern or volunteer, please fill out this form.
We try to respond to all requests, but sometimes the volume of requests is such that this isn’t possible. If you don’t receive a response within two months of contacting us, this is an indication that our volunteer/intern slots are already full or we don’t have any projects needing help at that time. Feel free to check back later in the year if so - our projects and their needs are changing all the time. We appreciate your interest in helping out!