Internship: Aquarium of the bay
May 2025 – June 2026
Background
The Aquarium of the Bay is a non-profit organization located on San Francisco’s Pier 39. The Aquarium is dedicated to the protection and conservation of marine life and the education of its visitors. Many of the animals in its care are classified as “endangered” or “at risk.” At the Aquarium, I volunteered as an education docent for a little over a year.
When we got there on the first day, we were taken on a tour and taught about the animals in the Aquarium’s care, including their eating habits, their reproductive habits, their biology, and the answers to FAQs. Then for the next three days, we shadowed existing staff to get an idea of the best practices and things to avoid. After that, the staff shadowed us, taking notes, giving us suggestions, and making sure we were ready to be left on our own. We were then entrusted with our own stations.
Training
My Role
By the end of my school-affiliated internship, I decided to keep coming back as a volunteer. I loved working at the Aquarium, sharing facts, interacting with visitors and staff from all walks of life, and learning the best practices as I went. I was entrusted with training a lot of new volunteers and interns. I continued working with them through my senior year of high school, training, educating, and helping them redesign a nine-year-old slide with accurate information about otters and how we care for them at the Aquarium.
Though I’ve now left the Aquarium, and all the people in it, I’ve started down the road of a career in Marine Biology and Conservation at the University of California San Diego. The 300+ hours I spent volunteering at the Aquarium of the Bay reignited my passion for Marine Biology and Conservation, and taught me what it meant to work in a professional public setting: good communication, public speaking, education, interpretation, all the nuances of a public facing career, and most importantly, that getting a job wasn’t as scary or high stakes as I thought. My time as a docent at the Aquarium of the Bay is responsible for a significant piece of who I am, and continues to shape who I’m becoming even after I’ve left.