As an intern, I shadowed regulators in the field and learned about all aspects of their regulatory program. I learned to use field indicators to identify and make jurisdictional determinations of wetlands and waters of the U.S. During my internship I attended scoping meetings with potential developers and resource agencies to address permitting issues and gained a working knowledge of the permitting process. I also participated in training using the 87 Wetland Delineation Manual.

As a fisheries technician, I worked on two different projects. I assisted in a NC Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit project, with the objective to enhance the understanding of the ecology and migratory patterns of Caribbean diadromous fishes. I lived in Puerto Rico for the final field season of this project and collected large amounts of data. We used electrofishing techniques to make depletion estimates of fish densities and conduct PIT tagging. Also, during this project we conducted extensive habitat surveys as well as weekly tracking of fish using radio telemetry.The second project was a statewide survey of fish intersex and Endocrine Disrupting Compounds in North Carolina. During this project I collected fish, water and sediment samples using various fisheries sampling techniques. I also assisted with sample preparation, fish dissection, solid phase extraction and sample analysis.