Special to MVSU/Written by Melissa Schneider
Remeya Ganesh has taken a lot of science classes at Mississippi Valley State University. Still, she never studied coastal science until she participated in the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium Coastal Science Fellowship for Minority Undergraduates.
"I never had the opportunity to learn about marine science, which is why I was interested in this fellowship," she said.
She had always been interested in learning about coastal and marine environments because her parents are from the island nation of Sri Lanka. Growing up in Toronto, Canada, and going to college in the Mississippi Delta, Ganesh hadn't spent much time on a coast.
Learning at home and on-site
This summer, she spent 10 weeks as a fellow working with the Dauphin Island Sea Lab's Discovery Hall Programs on Dauphin Island, Alabama. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, she worked from her home in Toronto for six weeks and came to the Sea Lab for the final four weeks of her fellowship in July.
During the first part of her fellowship, she researched environmental education organizations in Mississippi and Alabama and compiled data about them, including their focus, location, and contact information. Then, she mapped each organization using Google Earth and created a separate map for each Alabama and Mississippi. She also researched online lesson plans from the Gulf of Mexico region that focused on environmental science. She found the lesson plans and summarized them, including their topics, length, and target grade levels.
When Ganesh arrived on the Alabama Coast, she joined the Dauphin Island Sea Lab's Discovery Hall Programs education team to work with middle school and high school students attending summer camp programs. New to the coastal environment, Ganesh learned alongside the students as they explored plants, fish, dolphins, and other flora and fauna. She shadowed the educators, and they later gave her the chance to lead activities.
"Remeya Ganesh was one of the first fellows supported by the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium from underrepresented universities," LaDon Swann, director of the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium, said. "Despite the pandemic, she had a chance to learn about marine science, coastal living, and the pure joy of being outside and working on the water."
Developing teaching skills
Ganesh learned new skills like seining and dissecting a shark. She also guided students as they learned to examine plankton, build remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), track coastlines, and so many more activities.
"It helped me with learning how to teach effectively," she said. "I took a couple of education courses, but I haven't learned how to interact with students."
A senior at Mississippi Valley State University, she is majoring in health, physical education and recreation, and minoring in biology. She hopes to become a doctor and has already been accepted to medical school. She also wants to continue teaching healthy living and coaching sports, activities she currently does in her role as a head soccer coach for youth ages 8-16 with the Canadian Tamil Sports Association.
At the Sea Lab, Ganesh learned how to make learning interactive through games, hands-on activities, and other tactics that keep kids engaged.
"It's not just sitting and teaching with PowerPoint," she said.
The educators at the Sea Lab were very friendly and helped her learn, she said. They were open to what she was interested in and helped her narrow down her fellowship work to what was most suitable for her.
Tina Miller-Way, chair of the Dauphin Island Sea Lab Discovery Hall Programs and Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant's assistant director for education, was her mentor during the fellowship.
"Remeya has been fantastic to work with," Miller-Way said. "While at the Sea Lab, she has welcomed and enjoyed every activity or opportunity we have provided. She has held stingrays, explored the wonders (and mud) of a salt marsh, learned some of our coastal history, increased her confidence leading children and become more familiar with the variety of things that Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant does. And, she has done all of this with a mask on her face!"
Having Miller-Way as an engaging mentor was a learning experience, Ganesh said.
"Tina has been amazing and super understanding," she said. "I learned a lot, not just about coastal science, but about leadership from her."
In addition to research and teaching, Ganesh participated in an outreach event at Bellingrath Gardens in Mobile County. Sea Lab educators set up a table with marine life specimens, and visitors to the public gardens asked questions and learned about them.
This fall, Ganesh is continuing to increase her environmental literacy by taking an environmental health course at Mississippi Valley State University.
"I decided to take it instead of chemistry because of this fellowship," she said.