Some opportunities shared by Bowdoin alum Aspen Gavenus ’99:
Opportunities in Kachemak Bay, Alaska

Environmental Education Jobs and Internships (spring & summer 2019) with the Center for Alaskan Coastal Studies:

Do you enjoy getting people excited about our natural world?  As an Environmental Educator, Naturalist, or Intern with the Center for Alaskan Coastal Studies, you’ll have the opportunity to share your energy and enthusiasm by leading educational programs for children, school groups, and visitors to Alaska.  As a non-profit environmental education and stewardship organization, the Center for Alaskan Coastal Studies’ mission is to foster responsible interaction with our natural surroundings and to generate knowledge of the unique ecosystems of Kachemak Bay. Our seasonal staff are employed at the Wynn Nature Center (a 140-acre boreal forest preserve) the semi-remote Peterson Bay Field Station (coastal ecosystems) and the Yurt on the Spit.  Responsibilities vary by position. Check out our website for more information: https://www.akcoastalstudies.org/about-us/jobs-volunteers.html

Alaska Coastal Summer Institute (summer 2019)

ACSI is built around four core experiences (each about a week in duration) hosted by local research agencies and community-organizations in the Kachemak Bay area.  These core experiences provide a fun, fascinating, and highly effective way to learn how scientific knowledge is being built and used in Kachemak Bay.  You will also attain job-related skills in research design, data collection, analysis, and scientific communication. Plus, you can grow your professional network and become familiar with a number of the research agencies working in Kachemak Bay, exploring different career options and build connections with organizations that offer seasonal internships, as well as research/graduate school positions! Each core experience determined by the partner agencies offers students insight into their most interesting and important research, community-based monitoring, and science communication work.  The cost is approximately $3000, but some scholarship assistance may be available. For more information, go to https://www.akcoastalstudies.org/education-programs/alaska-coastal-summer-institute.html

Semester by the Bay (fall 2019, and new this year, spring 2020)

Each fall, the Kachemak Bay Campus of Kenai Peninsula College, University of Alaska Anchorage, located in Homer, Alaska, offers students from around the country the opportunity for an academic hands-on learning experience studying biological sciences with easy access to cold-water marine habitats and an Alaskan theme. The semester has been designed to meet the needs of students majoring in the natural sciences in a creative and adventurous way.

Kachemak Bay is one of the richest marine estuaries in the world. Charismatic species such as sea otters, killer and humpback whales, bald eagles, puffins, jellies, halibut, and salmon utilize the waters and coastal environments of Kachemak Bay. Students are immersed with these and other species, such as beluga whales, during hands-on labs, field trips conducted throughout the semester here in Kachemak Bay and the surrounding waters of Cook Inlet, and during undergraduate internship opportunities conducted with our community partners. Check out http://semesterbythebay.org/ or see the attached flyer.

Shantzbird Scholarship for the Kachemak Bay Shorebird Festival (spring 2019)

The Shantz Brothers Foundation just announced they will be sending another student to the Kachemak Bay Shorebird Festival in Homer, Alaska. Aplications for the 2019 trip, which takes place May 9-12, are now being accepted.  The application deadline is December 31, 2018. Please click here for the Scholarship Application

Field Studies for Student Groups at Peterson Bay (spring, summer, fall)

One of the best parts of my job is to put together unique Alaska Coastal Ecology educational programs for middle school, high school, and college student groups from around the state, country, and even world.  If you are interested in bringing a group of students to our remote Peterson Bay Field Station in spring, summer, or fall, please get in touch.  Using evidence-based teaching methods and immersing students in the amazingly diverse and complex human-ecological systems of the Kachemak Bay region, these field study trips can be just a couple days long as part of a longer trip throughout Alaska, or you can focus your time in Kachemak Bay, spending over a week at the Field Station.  Check out https://www.akcoastalstudies.org/education-programs/summer-youth-programs/for-groups.html or the attached brochure for more information.

Please pass this information on to anyone who you think might be interested, and get in touch if you have questions!

Thanks!

Aspen

Katie ‘Aspen’ Gavenus ’99
Program Director
Center for Alaskan Coastal Studies
email:[email protected]

708 Smokey Bay Way
Homer, AK 99603
(907) 235-1974