High school student Liliana Bonilla was part of the Marine Environmental Society's (MARS) 2021 Summer Internship in Marine Science for high school students, after searching the pages of Conservation Opportunity (CO), which is in charge of “connecting people with opportunities for growth and development within environmental conservation in Puerto Rico and the United States,” according to its mission, marks this achievement as a faithful example of its objectives being conquered.
Second field visit to El Escambron Beach in San Juan for fish identification and classification. Photo by Jesennia Bonilla
Liliana's sister, Jesennia Bonilla, who recently completed a bachelor's degree in Biology, used to browse for study opportunities, jobs or scholarships through social networks and was the one who found the summer internship that would change her sister's life.
“I am the creator of a page on Instagram called. @_bioenvironment_ and I follow different nature related websites that have employment opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students and while searching, I came across Conservation Opportunity and I thought I'd see if there were any good opportunities and since then I've been keeping an eye on the page, as well as on the LinkedIn. By February or March of this year they had put the post about the SAM internship and that's when I let my sister know because it was for school students. I told her to fill out the opportunity to see what happened, since I had previously filled out several opportunities they had put on the page to see if any were given,” explained Jesennia Bonilla, Liliana Bonilla's sister.
The sisters explain that navigating through the CO pages made the search process easier for them because, from the format of the publications, they already knew the requirements they had to meet. They just filled out the application, wrote a paragraph, answered several questions, and then received the acceptance from the entity.
Observation of coral saplings at Punta Soldado beach in Culebra, PR. Photo by Jesennia Bonilla
After participating in the internship, Liliana considers that this opportunity gave her the relevant knowledge to know what she wants to study in college, and to feel “less lost” when dealing with certain topics. In addition, she indicates that the species identification techniques and the “Art Studio” platform helped her to understand more deeply the concepts involved in Marine Biology.
“In June, from Monday to Thursday, there were workshops every day from 9 am to 2 pm, depending on the workshops they were going to give us. In the first month we made two field visits: one was just an identification of some organisms that they gave us, and the second was a fish identification in the Escambrón, and that's where we all went. Then in July, out of the 30 of us, 10 were selected, and those 10 we did research and made a presentation. We were assigned a mentor and with another colleague we made a presentation about the coral farms they have in Culebra. We went with our mentor to Culebra, to the coral farms and there we created some graphics with ‘Art Studio’ and with a data set that a classmate had created and we made the presentation at the beginning of August”, says Liliana Bonilla, participant of the SAM Summer Internship 2021.
Consequently, to this achievement for the student, CO begins preparations to expand its areas and boost the knowledge of its followers with interactive workshops in order to help its participants obtain more opportunities.
Identification of brain coral with Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease (STCLD). Photo by Jesennia Bonilla
“We want to continue helping people over the years to be able to get good jobs in their areas of interest and/or study and to be successful in getting those positions. We will also be working on workshops on resume writing, cover letters, how to conduct a successful interview, among other things in order to help the candidate achieve their position,” explains Fabiola Torres Toledo, founder of Conservation Opportunity.
They are also excited about the possibility of collaborating with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to create a conservation symposium. With this, they hope to create other workshops to create a federal resume, as well as guide the participants through the USA Jobs, which is where the federal positions are published.
CO will start a newsletter subscription so that people can receive job opportunities via e-mail.
If you feel a calling to continue supporting Conservation Opportunity, Fabiola invites you to check out the volunteer opportunities that are currently available with them at Join Us or also keep an eye on their social networks, such as Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn y Facebook for opportunities with other entities.