Internships

Lucile Jarry ’12

Tasks at the Caribbean Environmental Health Institute were varied: interns helped log information gathered by CEHI researchers via Access, assisted lab staff in routine testing of resort waters against recreational standards, summarized lengthy documents for online abstracts, and hiked the Fond d’Or watershed with St Lucia Forestry Department staff to locate sources of pollution. A common activity in both routine testing and field work in the watershed was water quality testing for pH, temperature, chlorine, dissolved oxygen, microbial contamination and other sources of pollution; the lab procedures were explained the first weeks of the internship, and reinforced in the field. Office work required some proficiency with the MS Office Suite (Word, Excel, Access) but also provided skills in database manipulation and in executive summary creation. Finally, the organization staff made it very easy to learn more about the culture and ecology of the island, including an overnight turtle-watching trip on the eastern coast and a day hike through the rainforest.