 |
We've raised $181,283 so far, which is nearly 75% to our goal! With just over two months left, we need your support!
|
|
|
|
Dear Friends of Shoals Marine Laboratory,
As the beautiful autumn colors begin to unfold here in New England, I find myself frequently turning to the NEW webcam for some "island time." I am looking forward to watching a big winter storm from the comfort of the mainland!
In September, while the staff winterized and packed up the station, I headed to Alaska for the Organization of Biological Field Stations (OBFS) Annual Meeting for which I
serve on the board. I always learn so much at this meeting about fundraising, communication, working with large data sets and more. I was impressed, as always, by the power of field stations to change the world through research and education.
For over a century in the United States and for 50 years at Shoals Marine Laboratory, field stations have been indispensable entryways for scientists (students and PhD's) to study and make important discoveries about the natural world (
National Academy of Science Report 2014
).
At the OBFS meeting, I was reminded many times over about the power of experiential learning in the field to improve academic performance, physical health, and social skills among participants. Moreover, this mode of learning recruits, enhances, and retains students in science-related fields - a
national education priority
.
SML is the largest station to focus on undergraduate learning, which means that we are making a big impact on this national priority. However, we need your help to get a wide variety of students enrolled in our programs. We need scholarships to make these opportunities available to all the students who are interested! Please help change a student's life next summer and, together, we can empower the next generation of scientists.
Click here to help
!
|
|
2016 Season Summary
|
|
|
We are excited and proud to reflect on another exciting season at Shoals Marine Laboratory. Here is a quick 2016 season review, by the numbers!
Student education:
- 16 credit courses offered (including 3 new courses!)
- 32 course faculty members (including 7 new faculty!)
- 126 student enrollments (35 Cornell student enrollments, 17 UNH student enrollments, 15 enrollments from other colleges/universities, 49 high school student enrollments)
- 3 Artists-in-Residence working with SML students
Research:
- 17 undergraduate research interns in 7 internship programs
- 3 seasonal staff members working on White and Seavey Islands for tern conservation efforts
- Over 50 individual visiting researchers (AIMS bird banders, UMass Boston dive team, Cornell sea star wasting disease researchers, Northern Essex Community College gull banding team, etc.)
- LOTS of grant proposals!
Outreach:
And while these numbers are our best representation of SML's reach this season, we all know that the impact of the SML experience is impossible to capture with a statistic. It was a classic Shoals summer and we can't wait to do it again in 7 months!
|
|
| Marine Environmental Science, section 1. Photo by Dr. Laura Jordan-Smith. |
|
|
Media blitz - in case you missed it!
|
|
|
By Alexa Hilmer, SML External Relations Coordinator
WOW, talk about press coverage! Personally, I have never seen so much media demand for interviews or
trips to Appledore in one summer season. Between, SML's 50th Anniversary, excitement for new courses and programs at the lab, and the Childe Hassam Exhibition, mention of "Shoals Marine Laboratory" made its way into over 75 media publications, radio, and television programs - from the local Portsmouth Herald, the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and even across the country to Los Angeles. Some of my favorite highlights include:
|
|
|
Dr. Jennifer Seavey gives Boston Chronicle a private tour of the island. Special thanks to UNH Media Relations Specialist, Robbin Ray, for scheduling, leading tours, and following up with all of these media groups!
|
|
|
SML interns present findings!
|
|
|
Now halfway through the fall semester, Bethany Balstad (UNH '19) reflected on her SML internship. "We learned how to work together, and how to work with long-term data. My SML internship reinforced my career goals for graduate school."
Bethany's fellow Intertidal Ecology Intern, Brady Clarke (UNH '19) was recently awarded NOAA's prestigious Hollings Undergraduate Scholarship. Congratulations Brady!
Also contributing posters for this year's RARGOM meeting were: Mila Calandrino (UMass Amherst '17) and Meg Car (UNH '17) for the Marine Mammal Internship, and Mary Caffery (UNH '17) for the Environmental Education Internship. Thank you and well-done to each of our undergraduate researchers!
|
|
|
Group photo (L-R): Mila Calandrino, Brady Clarke, Bethany Balstad, Mary Caffery, Dr. Jennifer Seavey, Meg Carr.
|
|
|
Calling all SML alumni & friends!
|
|
|
As many of you know, we are working diligently to launch the SML Alumni & Friends Association very soon! The Association will build our connection to the entire SML community (spanning all 50 years) by engaging individuals, supporting scholarship and fundraising initiatives, organizing and hosting events, and collecting data on where our alumni have landed since leaving Appledore. One of the first steps in this process will be a full update to our contact database -
we want to make sure we have current information for as many of our alumni and friends as possible - and we need your help!
If you are receiving this newsletter, we have your email address. But what if we need to confirm your SML class year and mailing address to invite you to an upcoming reunion event?!
Click the button below to update or submit your contact info
f
or our SML Alumni & Friends database:
In addition, please forward and share this link widely to other SML folks! The more SML community members we can reach, the better! Questions? Email us at [email protected]. We'd love to hear from you! Thanks for your help!
|
|
|
Photo from SML's 50th Anniversary Celebration by David Murray, ClearEyePhoto.com
|
|
|
Recent publications by SML faculty
|
|
 |
|
The SML community is privileged to include so many engaged and accomplished scientists, leaders, and teachers - alumni, staff, faculty members, and supporters. We want to highlight a few recent peer-reviewed publications that our esteemed staff and faculty members are making to marine science (and beyond!). Starting with this one:
Dr. Jennifer Seavey on Gulf of Mexico oyster reef restoration
Dr. Jennifer Seavey, SML's Executive Director, has been involved in oyster research in the Gulf of Mexico since 2010. In a 2011 paper, she and her colleagues identified that oyster reefs in the Big Bend Coast of Florida have declined dramatically over the last 30 years mostly as a result of changing freshwater input into this estuary system. Dr. Seavey's research team followed this work with a project to restore restoration methods and the results were just published. As a result of a restoration pilot project undertaken with support from The Nature Conservancy and NOAA, they found that
1. oyster recruitment can be strongly limited by available, durable substrate, especially in high-energy areas that are heavily influenced by storm wave action; 2. aquaculture byproduct materials that are considered to be marine debris can be repurposed for effective oyster restoration; and 3. restoration of oyster reefs may have positive impacts on avian community composition.
|
|
|
|
In Closing
|
|
In my opening words above, I asked you to consider joining us to build student scholarship support. I want to underline this point especially for Cornell and for students from other universities. Right now, we have very limited funding for undergraduates in these two categories, yet the demand for support is high. We know from talking to students that financial support is absolutely what they need to participate in the life changing programs at SML.
At least 80% of college students in the US need aid to attend college. It is this simple: students need your help to enable them to get all the incredible benefits of a summer on Appledore Island! Better understanding of science concepts and problem solving, and improved understanding of environmental problems are just the start of the
benefits of SML programs.
Please help us make positive change in the lives of students.
With deep appreciation and warm wishes,
Jennifer Seavey, Ph.D.
Kingsbury Director of the Shoals Marine Laboratory
|
|
|
