A Homestead High School graduate has been selected as a Georgia Sea Grant Marine Education intern with the University of Georgia Marine Extension Service for the 2012-13 year.
Kathryn Ruhrold is a native of Fort Wayne and graduated from Ball State University in May with a bachelor’s degree in zoology and a minor in Spanish. During her time at Ball State, her focus was primarily on field research. For her honors thesis, she completed a study on the microhabitat associations of local rodent populations. She also studied the use of defense mechanisms in fiddler crabs while taking a field course on Sapelo Island, Ga. There she rekindled her love of marine biology and developed an interest in barrier island ecology. Ruhrold spent her summer broadening her passion for education working as a research fellow for the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research.
Georgia Sea Grant awarded a total of four one-year marine education internships to recent college graduates from across the country. The interns will spend 50 weeks on Skidaway Island at MAREX’s education branch — the Marine Education Center and Aquarium. They will teach thousands of students, teachers and the general public over the year. Additionally, they will participate in outreach by judging science fair projects, teaching during science nights at local schools and field-testing educational curricula.
