Internship
Mosquito Surveillance Intern
Organization
St. Lawrence County Public Health
80 St. Hwy 310, Suite 2
Canton, New York 13617-1476
About the Organization
The mission of St. Lawrence County Public Health is to “ensure the health, safety, and quality of life for all St. Lawrence County residents.” The department focuses on controlling the spread of disease, providing health information to residents through education, and they develop plans to mitigate any public health risks that may arise. The department served as our site for the PIP this summer, and we are the first group they have taken on to handle mosquito surveillance in the county. We worked most closely with Erin Strieff the Public Health Director, and she helped us connect with other members of Public Health and with Wadsworth Laboratories.
Duties
Duties for this internship included mainly learning and utilizing identification skills to identify mosquito species. Much of our time was devoted to identifying and differentiating species within the lab, but our workdays also included a good amount of time in the field either setting, collecting, or providing maintenance to our three types of traps. Interns had to be skilled with microscope work, as well as decently skilled in craftsmanship, as we frequently had to fix gear, and we had to construct some traps ourselves. It also paid off to be adaptable and be able to think on the fly, as our duties and procedures could change by the day, and there was a lot of problem-solving involved. Our position was paid, and we typically worked 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. each day.
Summary
This summer I worked as a mosquito surveillance intern for St. Lawrence County Public Health. This opportunity allowed me to gain experience in a field position, and it taught me many new skills that will be useful in an environmental career in the future such as using a dichotomous key to identify key features on organisms, locating and mapping locations with the right conditions for specimen collection, and using professional communication to correspond with members of Public Health, experts from the mosquito surveillance program in Onondaga County, and research scientists from Wadsworth laboratories. I think working with other professionals in the field was especially helpful, and it helped me to form connections that will be beneficial later on in my career. On top of this, I also learned how to work in a large team with other students from across New York, and how to organize and assign tasks to individuals. Working in a large team also involved conflict resolution strategies, as occasional disagreements would arise, so I also practiced negotiation in a professional setting. Overall, this experience was incredibly important for my career development, and it has shaped my idea of what I would like to pursue in the future.