This summer, we had the pleasure of hosting Chloe, a Durham resident and undergraduate student at Brown University, as our intern. Chloe is a Presidential Scholar at Brown, a program designed for high-achieving, creative students to foster intellectual curiosity through research, leadership, and community engagement. She came to us by way of Duke’s Office of Climate and Sustainability, and we were happy to have her join our team.
It was a very busy summer for the Duke Forest, and Chloe was ready to jump in with both feet, quite literally! On her very first day, we handed her a set of hip waders and she was in New Hope Creek helping sample macroinvertebrates as part of our stream monitoring. Chloe quickly and eagerly learned to identify several indicator species and collect water quality data. She participated with another important part of the New Hope Creek restoration: the collection and relocation of mussel species upstream of the new bridge construction site. She used the knowledge she learned that day, along with thorough research she did on her own, to create a mussel fact sheet that our staff can use for future outreach and education events.
While she spent a lot of time in New Hope Creek, Chloe also spent plenty of time on land in the Forest. She helped sample several Continuous Forest Inventory plots, quickly picking up on the sampling protocol and tree identification. She independently ran educational activities at a station during Duke’s First Year Orientation, expanding our staff capacity and allowing us to host nearly 300 incoming students during orientation. Even behind the scenes, Chloe provided significant support to our staff by working with data from our Community Science Herpetofauna program and developing educational content.
Chloe was a very quick study with everything we threw her way, and she was ready and willing to take on every task with an enthusiastic and positive approach. It was a pleasure to get to know Chloe, and we wish her the best in her junior year at Brown University!