Jadyn Funkhouser is from New Jersey and interns for The Nature Conservancy . Her work is mostly remote, focusing on data analysis of different TNC sites, such as creating sea level rise animations and conducting vegetation and habitat mapping. At times, she goes out into the field for restoration days, vegetation surveys, sediment surveys, and other similar activities. Her deliverables include data analysis, a technical report, and transforming this data into GIS apps that can be accessible to the public and presented back to the community. A fun fact about her work is that Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are not only useful for data analysis but also have applications for creating webpages, story maps, and other tools to effectively communicate science to the public. Science communication is built into GIS and can be a vital resource for people in the conservation field.

Her favorite part of the internship experience so far is getting out into the field. While not the main focus of her position, she loves conducting field work and finds these days the most personally rewarding. The most challenging part of her internship is balancing work with personal life, as there is much happening that takes her away from her work, and trying to fit all the pieces together is currently the hardest part.

Mya is from Waikōloa, Hawai‘i, and is interning for the County of Hawai'i Planning Department . Throughout her internship, Mya will be conducting plant inventories to determine the current status of landscaping in Hawai‘i, interviewing key stakeholders on what factors need to be improved, and collecting community input through an online survey. Using the results from the plant inventories, interviews, and online survey, she will determine the best recommendations to amend the County of Hawai‘i Planning Department Rule 17 Landscaping Requirements. As part of her deliverables, she will also develop an educational resource that will include native plants for different climates, drought-tolerant plants on Hawai‘i Island, and links to native plant nurseries or where the community can learn more about native plants.

A fun fact about her agency is that interning under the Planning Department allows her to work with other County agencies, such as the Office of Sustainability, Climate, Equity, and Resilience (OSCER), to help her expand her network. Her favorite part of her internship experience is being able to make connections with people in the community through interviews and her online survey. The most challenging part of Mya's internship will be compiling and analyzing her results from the interviews, plant inventories, and survey to make concise recommendations on amending the Landscaping Requirements Rule 17.

Margaret is from California and is interning for the Waikōloa Dry Forest Initiative . Through her internship, Margaret will be assisting in the creation of a standard operating procedure for the care and restoration efforts of Mezoneuron kavaiense (uhiuhi), a critically endangered indigenous species of Hawai‘i's dry forest. Additionally, she will be assisting in the planning and coordination of the 2025 Nāhelehele Dry Forest Symposium and the 2026 Biocultural Talk Series. She will also have the opportunity to work with the local community through children's events hosted at the Waikōloa Dry Forest Preserve as well as volunteer events hosted by WDFI. WDFI has successfully restored 65 acres of dry forest with active restoration efforts since they took over management of the land in 2011, with an additional 40 acres that have received seed scatter restoration.

She has loved getting back into working with children in the conservation world and getting to share knowledge with them and show them things they've never gotten the chance to experience before. Writing grants and mid-year reports has been challenging yet very rewarding for Margaret.

Meeya is from Japan and Oʻahu, and her internship is with USGS at Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park, focusing on ‘amakihi resistance to avian malaria and their nectar sources. She will analyze the ‘amakihi blood smear database with avian malaria infection status of banded individuals within ‘Ainahou Ranch, along with ‘ōhiʻa and māmane phenology datasets. ‘Amakihi is a honeycreeper species with greater resistance to avian malaria and relies on flowering trees for nectar as a food source.

Her favorite part about this internship is the variety of opportunities to learn and improve skills, such as bird banding and lab experience. The most challenging aspect is learning about these extensive topics through these datasets, but she enjoys this challenge because it is another way to connect more with the birds.

Sofia is from Hauʻula, Oʻahu, and she interns for Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge (HFNWR) and the Army Natural Resources Program contracted group Center for Environmental Management of Military Lands (CEMML) . The main objectives of her internship focus on assisting the CEMML crew in monitoring the Nēnē population at Hakalau Forest throughout their nesting season (October–June). She also assists the HFNWR Predator Control crew with managing invasive predator trap lines surrounding refuge units. Over the course of her internship, she will be conducting a research project focused on testing the feasibility of Passive Acoustic Monitoring in recording changes in Nēnē population density throughout the nesting season, and her findings will be outlined in the final internship report. Nēnē have been observed to inhabit a wide variety of environments across the elevation gradient, from sea level to over 2700 meters, and due to their fairly versatile nature, a small population was introduced to Hakalau Forest NWR starting in the late 20th century. This population grew from 35 to about 200 individuals over the course of ten years.

Her favorite part of the internship experience is being able to work within a diverse range of environments between HFNWR and PTA, as she assists in monitoring efforts for native forest birds, water birds, and even burrowing seabirds. So far, one of the most challenging activities she has participated in was setting up songmeter equipment across remote lava field locations to help monitor the at-times cryptic Band-rumped Storm Petrel population at PTA; however, she is very excited to be assisting with and learning more about these remote sensing methods.

Chloe is from California and interns at NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service . As part of her internship with NOAA Fisheries, she is assisting with the federal rulemaking process for Hawaiʻi’s deepwater shrimp and precious coral fisheries. Her work includes reviewing annual catch limits (ACLs), contributing to environmental assessments, and helping develop regulatory documents that will be published as part of the 2026–2028 rulemaking package. She is also working with other divisions on smaller projects that support fisheries policy and management throughout the Pacific Islands Region. NOAA Fisheries manages everything from massive commercial fisheries to niche ones like Hawaiʻi’s precious coral beds, and even if only one person is fishing, that fishery still goes through full federal oversight, including environmental reviews, public comment, and policy updates.

Her favorite part of this internship has been working with such a supportive and knowledgeable team. Her mentor has taught her so much, and she has really appreciated being able to grow professionally while contributing to meaningful work. It has been rewarding for her to see how a universal policy process applies to place-based fisheries in Hawaiʻi, and she especially enjoys that the work she is doing feels tangible, directly connecting to real management decisions that reflect both local context and ecosystem needs. The most challenging part of her internship has been learning the policies themselves and understanding how all the moving parts of the policy process fit together. It has been a learning curve to grasp each step, but it has helped her see how everything connects to support effective fisheries management, and she knows there is still more to learn.