Internships are incredibly popular for Indigenous undergraduate and graduate students, but many are advertised as all or nothing – an opportunity to learn, and engage, but a restrictive requirement to participate for the entirety of 8 (or 10) weeks. The summer months are times when school-age children are home, when canoe journeys are happening, and when students who have worked incredibly hard during the academic year may need intentional time to breathe. With this in mind, we have designed our Next Generation (NIFA-USDA, award #2023-70440-40154) internships to remove the bulk of conflict that comes from working with motivated aquaculture students who have cultural and family obligations during traditional internships.
In anticipation in meeting our Indigenous students’ needs for an engaging summer of aquaculture research, we pivoted and changed our 8-week summer program to eight 1-week modules (Fig 1), which allowed flexibility not only for the students, but for the mentors and projects as well. The internships were place based at Northwest Indian College, in the Pacific Northwest, and the traditional lands of the Lhaq’temish People. Students were introduced to research concepts and practices of marine science, environmental water quality, freshwater nutrient loading, and oyster and clam toxicology (Fig. 2). A team of experts from academia, federal and state agencies, Indigenous organizations, and the commercial aquaculture sector supported the students. Students participated in a everything from basic concepts of oceanography and complex Indigenous management policies of shellfish and invasive species. After an introduction to summer aquaculture, our students will have the opportunity this academic year to present their research at scientific conferences, continued opportunities to engage with the aquaculture workforce, and support to apply for graduate schools.