Alexandra Dugan has always been passionate about environmental education and outreach, so when the opportunity arose to spend a summer with University of Delaware’s Delaware Sea Grant learning about those topics and fine-tuning her skills, she jumped at the chance.

Dugan, who graduated in May from American University with a degree in environmental studies, spent her summer working with Delaware Sea Grant specialists Danielle Swallow, David Christopher and Brittany Haywood on a variety of topics.

During that time, she interacted with local Delawareans and helped educate both adults and children about different aspects of the environment.

“This internship has been great to learn a lot more about environmental education,” said Dugan. “Before I applied, I thought this looked like the perfect internship, and spending my summer with Delaware Sea Grant has been the best-case scenario.”

Environmental education

Dugan assisted Christopher, marine education specialist, with camps, workshops and tours of the Hugh R. Sharp Campus in Lewes.

She attended a teacher workshop at the James Farm Ecological Preserve with Christopher, where they teamed up with the Delaware Center for Inland Bays to talk with teachers about running environmental education programs. She also participated with the Wilmington Green Jobs program, going out on the Joanne Daiber Research Vessel to trawl for marine life and teach participants about local species.

When Christopher was out of town, Dugan led a lesson about horseshoe crabs for a group of bilingual elementary school students.

“I gave them a presentation about horseshoe crabs and their importance to the region, taught them how to survey horseshoe crabs and showed them a live horseshoe crab,” said Dugan. “That was a great experience, and I definitely learned a lot.”

Dugan enjoyed learning to tailor environmental education lesson plans to different age groups and audiences.

“Different people learn in different ways, so I learned about trying to make our lessons fun and engaging for a wide variety of audiences,” said Dugan. “The kids showed a lot of interest in environmental education and when they’re excited about it, it makes it feel worthwhile.”

Workshop planning

Working with Swallow, a coastal hazards specialist, Dugan helped organize the Delaware Sea Grant materials at workshops geared towards emergency preparedness planning for coastal communities. This included a focus on extreme heat safety, flooding, and what to do if a person is caught swimming in a rip current.

She met Delaware Congresswoman Sarah McBride, which she said was an amazing experience, especially since they are both alums of American University, and Tim Cooper, the emergency manager for Sussex County, who gave her a tour of the Emergency Operations Center.

This internship culminated with her helping Swallow and Kathryn Lienhard, energy research associate, to plan a Beat the Heat resource fair in August. Delaware Sea Grant professionals and community partners were on hand to offer information on health and safety during extreme heat events.

In addition, Dugan attended a Submerged Aquatic Vegetation (SAV) Seekers workshop led by Brittany Haywood, coastal ecology specialist, where she learned about local SAV and how to identify it. She also led a project to update the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Marine Debris Monitoring and Assessment Project database to record the types and amounts of macro-scale waste found on Delaware beaches.

Overall, she said the variety of work allowed her to learn about the different aspects of Delaware Sea Grant and gain different skills and knowledge about what she can do for a career in the environmental field.

“Getting to work with so many passionate and amazing people this summer made me excited about the work I was doing and the future work I will be doing in the field,” said Dugan. “I met a lot of people through different events, and I got to participate in those events, which was helpful in learning more about jobs in the field and expanding my professional network.”