Zavier Avery’s Summer as a Science Communication Intern

This blog was written by Zavier Avery as part of his science communication internship with SE CASC during the summer of 2024.

My summer internship experience at SE CASC was like nothing I could have imagined. Going into this internship, I wanted to make more connections in the field of science, gain more field experience, and dip into science communication. On the first day, I had the new job jitters but quickly warmed up to my mentor and co-workers around me. As someone who shied away from talking, it was easy to speak up and share my ideas.

Gaining connections was effortless at this internship as I participated in a series of events at Duke University called, “Lunch and Learn.” At the lunch and learns, we soaked in information from a variety of science communicators and were able to connect with them through LinkedIn.

Aside from science communicators, I was able to make connections with field technicians, researchers, and tribal representatives. At the beginning of the internship, I shadowed and took pictures of a field technician working on white-tailed deer research.

Following the first field day, I participated in USET’s Tribal climate resilience camp. During this camp, I helped register participants and learned about what climate problems Tribes located across the eastern United States were facing. Shortly after the camp, there was a field day involving research with coastal black bears and the NC Co-op Unit. I was excited about this field day because of the possibility of seeing a black bear which I had never seen before. A couple of hours in, that excitement faded because this happened to be the hottest day of the year, and I sweat all of the energy I had left in me out.

Luckily, the next field day for me was smooth sailing. I took pictures and videos of a precipitation monitoring station for one of my projects. Wrapping up the field days was a trip to the beach to look out for the crystal skipper butterfly. This one was my favorite because I recorded an interview, and there was plenty of wind to keep me cool. Plus, who doesn’t like the beach?

Field days aside, there were many other projects and events worth speaking about. As mentioned above, I had the opportunity to record and edit videos during this internship. Editing videos is something I thought I would never be able to do during an internship because my major has nothing to do with it. To my surprise, I was able to do so because I brought up the fact that I used to edit videos when I was a teenager in my spare time.

Adding to things I thought I would never do was create a business card. Even though this was a small project, it was important because now I have cards to hand out when I’m participating in science events. Overall, this experience was one of one. Not only because it was catered to my interests but because there was not one job to be done the entirety of summer.