Accordions

Immersive, hands-on, and transformative internships

Launched in 1996, MBARI’s Summer Internship Program is more than a traditional research experience. Open to undergraduate, graduate, and early-career professionals—including international candidates and educators—the program is designed to meet people wherever they are on their career journey.

MBARI’s summer interns are immersed in projects and the daily operations of a research institute, gaining valuable experience that helps steer their careers or future education. Image: Calista Kerba © 2025 MBARI

From marine biology and robotics to data science and communications, interns are paired with mentors across disciplines and gain real experience contributing to MBARI projects. Weekly workshops on professional development, applying for graduate school, networking with other interns and professionals, and navigating career pathways complement hands-on learning in the lab and at sea with their mentors.

For many, those 10 weeks become a turning point. While there are no guarantees, some interns return to MBARI as collaborators, postdocs, or even staff, joining a growing alumni network that spans the ocean science community.

“Because I was an intern, I understood how transformative it could be,” said Megan Bassett, now a research technician in MBARI’s Video Lab who co-leads the intern program. “We aren’t training people for one outcome. We’re helping them find their path, whether that’s research, science communication, or something they hadn’t even imagined before.”

By Ruth Nolan   |   There are stories of the Mojave Desert in books, and there are stories of the Mojave Desert’s indigenous people and their long history in this fabled and cherished geography, embedded in the Mojave Desert’s stunning rock spires, sacred caverns, mysterious canyons, and the long, slow, wide-mouthed alluvial fans spilling from these canyons. Such are the stories found in the Old Woman Mountains, a “sky island” mountain range rising from the low desert floor to as high as 5,300 feet in a remote area of eastern San Bernardino County known as the Heart of the Mojave, accessible by humans only via four-wheel-drive vehicle, or a very long hike.

Immersive, hands-on, and transformative internships

Launched in 1996, MBARI’s Summer Internship Program is more than a traditional research experience. Open to undergraduate, graduate, and early-career professionals—including international candidates and educators—the program is designed to meet people wherever they are on their career journey.

MBARI’s summer interns are immersed in projects and the daily operations of a research institute, gaining valuable experience that helps steer their careers or future education. Image: Calista Kerba © 2025 MBARI

From marine biology and robotics to data science and communications, interns are paired with mentors across disciplines and gain real experience contributing to MBARI projects. Weekly workshops on professional development, applying for graduate school, networking with other interns and professionals, and navigating career pathways complement hands-on learning in the lab and at sea with their mentors.

For many, those 10 weeks become a turning point. While there are no guarantees, some interns return to MBARI as collaborators, postdocs, or even staff, joining a growing alumni network that spans the ocean science community.

“Because I was an intern, I understood how transformative it could be,” said Megan Bassett, now a research technician in MBARI’s Video Lab who co-leads the intern program. “We aren’t training people for one outcome. We’re helping them find their path, whether that’s research, science communication, or something they hadn’t even imagined before.”

By Ruth Nolan   |   There are stories of the Mojave Desert in books, and there are stories of the Mojave Desert’s indigenous people and their long history in this fabled and cherished geography, embedded in the Mojave Desert’s stunning rock spires, sacred caverns, mysterious canyons, and the long, slow, wide-mouthed alluvial fans spilling from these canyons. Such are the stories found in the Old Woman Mountains, a “sky island” mountain range rising from the low desert floor to as high as 5,300 feet in a remote area of eastern San Bernardino County known as the Heart of the Mojave, accessible by humans only via four-wheel-drive vehicle, or a very long hike.