Ms. Alexi Bosech Meltel joined the Palau International Coral Reef Center’s (PICRC) 2016 Summer Internship Program, Building Science and Environmental Capacity in Palau’s Youth. This program was made possible by the Government of Palau’s 2016 Year of the Youth Small Grant Scheme, which is supported by a Grant from the Government of India.
[restrict]
Ms. Meltel graduated from Palau Mission Academy in 2012, and went on to attend Palau Community College (PCC) for a year as a liberal arts major. She then transferred to Kapi‘olani Community College in Honolulu, Hawai‘i for another year in liberal arts. In 2014, she transferred to the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa, where she is currently majoring in marine biology.
While pursuing her bachelor’s degree, Ms. Meltel has been fortunate enough to have done several internships. In the summer and fall of 2014, she was accepted into the Undergraduate Research and Mentoring (URM) program where she interned at Kewalo Marine Laboratory. Her project focused on the thermal tolerance of sea urchin larvae. In the summer of 2015, she participated in the Native American and Pacific Islander Research Experience (NAPIRE) where she did research on glass wing butterflies in Costa Rica.
Ms. Meltel hopes to learn more about Palau’s marine environment and how it’s being affected by different man made and environmental factors. She also hopes to learn the basics of conducting research projects: from field work and data collection, to presenting the final results to local communities. She is currently working on a Seagrass Monitoring project with PICRC researchers where she is helping collect, input, and analyze data. In addition, she had recently become an advanced open water PADI SCUBA diver, a training made possible through the efforts of the Office of the President and Sam’s Tours. [/restrict]