With its 438 acres of pristine coastal land between the Atlantic Ocean and Lake Worth Lagoon, John D. MacArthur each State Park seemed the most logical place for Samantha Grote and Jessica Stuczynksi to spend their summer internships. The 21-year-old college seniors – Grote, of Decatur, Ind., is a student at Purdue University and Stuczynski, of Stow, Ohio attends Kent State University – are biology majors who hope to pursue careers studying and working with exotic animals. For the past two months, they have participated in turtle nest surveys and excavations, worked with students as part of the park’s Natural Science Science and Education program and served as counselors in its summer camp, among many other duties. “We’re doing a little bit of everything,” said Stucynksi. “Right now we’re mostly dedicated to the summer camp and the kids. Previously, we’ve dealt with with ranger care, we did animal duty, turtle walks, and excavations. They’ve been throwing us in.
Stuczynki and Grote are among four college aged studentsworking at the Park this summer – NIkc HInes of Palm Beahc Atlantic University and Sarah Miller of FLorida Gulf Coast University are the other two – but they are the only two living at the Park during their stay. Las year, Friends of MacArthur Beach Sate Park bought a mobile home for students who needed a place to stay during their internships.
“We thought it was necessary to provide housing for the interns. In order to attract quality students from across the country,” said Cheryl Houghtelin, executive director of the Friends organization. “So far we have been very fortunate.”
The park developed its current internship program last year in an effort to provide students the opportunity to acquire skills and in-depth knowledge of their future careers and extra set of hands to help with the park’s programs.
The program also provides the park with the opportunity to build relationships with universities for recruitment said Susan Kamp, the marketing and membership coordinator. Stuczynki and Grote who began working in May will continue until early August say their internships have provided invaluable work experience . “I’ve learned all different things that go together to make the park run,” said Grote “That’s something that’s definitely going to help me in the future.” “Through my school I haven’t done a lot of hands on things,” Stuczynski added. “So this is definetly new for me.”