Environmental Science MS
AMWS Alumna currently serves as a California State Sea Grant Fellow at the Coastal Conservancy
November 2, 2018
Carrie Boyle, a recent graduate of the Applied Marine and Watershed Science master’s program at CSUMB (now known as ENSCI), has spent the past year serving as a California State Sea Grant Fellow at the Coastal Conservancy. The California Sea Grant’s State Fellows Program provides unique educational opportunities for graduate students and/or recent graduates to further explore their interests in marine resources and policy. As a recipient of this fellowship, Carrie has been working extensively in a 12-month assignment.
At the Coastal Conservancy, she currently serves in the Climate Ready Program, which aids human communities and natural resources along California’s coast in adapting to the impacts of climate change.
Her primary responsibility involves managing a multi-million dollar grant that funds projects with a focus on utilizing nature-based solutions to mitigate the impacts of climate change on the surrounding community. Two common focal points of these projects include sea level rise and urban heat. In addition to this grant program, Carrie also spends time on coordinating the Conservancy’s climate change committee and the California Coastal Resilience Network.
As graduate student at CSUMB, Carrie focused her studies on coastal and marine science, policy, and management. She not only gained a strong understanding of marine science topics, but also discovered ways in which science can be applied to policy and management decisions. Of all the skills she gained throughout the program, Carrie expressed that learning how to be adaptive has truly helped her in her career.
I came into the program with essentially no experience in ArcGIS or R statistical software, but I suddenly found myself coding in R and conducting geospatial analysis in Arc – and I really enjoyed it. It showed me that I can still learn new skills and find new interests, which has made me more open-minded and confident about the jobs I can apply to and the tasks I can take on in my current workplace.
Not only did she immerse herself in her graduate studies during her time spent at CSUMB, but she also allocated some of her free time towards participating in the Monterey Area Research Institutions’ Network for Education (MARINE). She continues to cross paths with many of the connections she made through this network, and highly recommends that students in the Monterey Bay area get involved.
Keep up the great work, Carrie!
To learn more about the ENSCI program, check out the program website. Applications for the 2019 – 2020 cohort are now being accepted, with a deadline of February 1, 2019.