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| Michaela Lawrence is spending her summer interning with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. |
Throughout the summer, we're checking in with several returning student-athletes who are partaking in unique experiences relating to student research, an internship, or sport through cross-cultural exchanges. Our first profile features Michaela Lawrence, a senior women's lacrosse student-athlete.
Lawrence's summer has encompassed an internship with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) working out of the University of South Florida Saint Petersburg. She's working hand-in-hand with a physical oceanographer to setup, deploy, and gather data from instruments mounted on the moorings for coastal ocean observing.
"I initially was drawn to this internship because it has a big field work component, explained Lawrence. "This internship allows me to apply some of the techniques and information I've learned in the lab (at Wooster) to actual research situations in the environment.
Part of the internship required Lawrence to obtain her American Academy of Underwater Sciences Scientific Dive certification. Coincidentally, Lawrence ran into a familiar face during the certification process as alumna Ellie Hudson-Heck '16, a Ph.D. student at USF St. Petersburg, was also in the process of obtaining her scientific dive certification.
Later this summer, Lawrence will help measure dissolved inorganic carbon and other important components of the carbonate system, and she notes "that's vital to understanding both the chemical makeup of the ocean and its acidifying trend."