Florida State University Science Intern at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for Summer

Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary has a new intern for this summer. Hollings Scholar, Charlie Azzarito, from Florida State University is spending his summer here in Alpena at the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary. “It Awards about one hundred to two hundred kids a year, and you apply your sophomore year, you get your junior and senior year tuition assistance. Then in between, you get to do an internship with NOAA. So, it’s a pretty cool deal. I have friends like working all over the country, some are in like the U.S. territories, like Puerto Rico and Guam right now; this was my internship site,” he said.

Charlie has some serious science on his hands. “It’s the Freshwater Acidification Project. We are monitoring the levels, conductivity, temperature in a couple other things going on in Lake Huron. It’s an extension of NOAA’s Ocean Acidification Program, which monitors the levels and temperature changes in the ocean. This is the first kind of study that we’re having out here in the Great Lakes or in any fresh body of water. And we’re hoping to continue expanding it to other sanctuaries that are opening up in the Great Lakes,” he added.