University internships push students in new directions
A story featured on CNN last year described how “the marsh of Louisiana’s fragile coast is disappearing at a mind-blowing rate. A football field of land, on average, falls into the Gulf each hour. That bears repeating: A football field of land, per hour, gone.” That fact — and its implications — piqued the interest of Owen Ryerson, a senior at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School (CRLS), who helped a group of researchers investigate whether local marshes are facing the same dangers. Ryerson was one of a group of students who recently completed a marine biology internship, and presented his findings to parents, professors, students, and Cambridge School Committee member Fred Fantini at the annual year-end luncheon. CRLS partners with local universities and organizations, including Harvard, to place students in labs where they work alongside professors, postdoctoral fellows, and graduate students, and learn about career paths available in marine science. In some cases the...