Over the summer and beginning of the school year, I completed an internship with Cheryl King. I have worked with her in the past, but through this, I really got to learn from her. I spent 60 hours trying to help the environment. We went on reef and beach clean-ups, as well as participated in some scientific studies. For this, I really furthered my civic literacy and engagement skills. I worked to better my community and learned new ways to do that. My favorite part of the internship was just seeing how much of an impact one person can make by doing a small thing. It may not seem big at the time, but everyone can really make a difference. This internship also solidified my dream of working with the environment in the future. Cheryl and her team, have really opened up my eyes to what the world needs and what we can do to help. Throughout my internship, I got to learn and experience many things that have helped me decide what I want to do in the future. The main thing that I did was turtle rescues. Almost every morning I got to go out and snorkel to find and help turtles that were in distress. If there wasn’t a turtle in need, we would pick up trash that had gotten into the ocean and landed among the reef. Every fourth Sunday, we stayed on land and cleaned up Kaehu beach. Since I was shadowing my mentor instead of just working with the turtle team, I also got to work on other small projects. One of my favorites was helping with the Maui Nui Seabird Project. The organization records seabirds coming in from the ocean at night and flying up to Haleakala. They had originally conducted the surveys about twenty years ago, so they were comparing those findings with today’s numbers. To see the birds, we used a big radar to detect flying objects, we then had to use a measuring device to make sure it was a bird and not something else. When I went along to help, we were surveying Big Beach out in Makena. It was a very interesting experience because I have never used the type of technology that we had to use to detect the birds. Another interesting thing that I got to help my mentor with was setting up an art exhibit at Whalers Village in Lahaina. It was a new exhibit on marine debris and pollution art exhibit, and my mentor Cheryl was one of the featured artists. I also helped Cheryl create some of the artwork that was on display. We used toothbrushes found at beach clean-ups to create a sunset scene, and used Sharkastics to create a shark. Sharkastics are pieces of debris that are either washed up on shore or pieces that we find in the ocean that have bite marks from sea animals on them. My favorite piece of art was a sign that had old lighters spelling out “Is this yours?” on it. It made me realize how no matter how hard I might try to keep my trash out of the ocean, there is a big chance that I am also contributing to the problem. My major takeaway from my internship was how much work it is to make just a small difference. Seeing this made me want to do as much as I can to help. The more people work for this goal of making the planet a better place, the less everyone has to do individually, making it easier for people to get involved. I also saw how important it is to keep on working hard to make a difference. Even if it might seem like something small, you are changing someone or something's life. Every time we released a turtle after helping it, I could feel that I had done something and made a difference. I think the 21st-century skill that I expanded on the most was my civic literacy and engagement skill. It might have been more towards animals than humans, but they are still a part of our community. My whole internship was about helping out Maui, and I think I learned how to do that. The gallery exhibit taught me how to promote what you are doing through art, I contributed to scientific studies through the seabird watch, helped Maui’s beaches with the cleanups, and saved animal’s lives through turtle rescues. This group is also up to date on any new bills that are made that have to do with the environment. They sometimes testify for or against them, and I gained valuable knowledge from this internship to do just that. At the beginning of my internship, my main goals were to learn how to help the environment in any way possible. I think I accomplished that. Cheryl taught me valuable skills to help me find my passion in the environment and how to achieve my goals. At the beginning of the internship, I watched her present at an event about how she has gotten to where she is today. It helped me to figure out my future plans to accommodate my goals. The hardest part of this internship was hitting the 60 hours. Since the snorkeling only lasted about 2 hours, I had to fit in a lot of them. I left Maui in the middle of June so I had to finish all of my hours in about four weeks. It did feel crammed at times, but I am so happy that I did it that way. Before this internship, I already knew that I wanted to do something for the environment, but it solidified that. I realize how important of an issue it is, and how much I need to do to help. This internship has really opened my eyes and will help me in my future studies. I am planning on going into environmental studies as a major, so all the work that I have done and all of the little bits of information that I have learned will help me excel in that field.