Hello again! This was my 4th week as an intern for the Collaborative to Combat the Illegal Turtle Trade. On Monday, I met again with my mentor Jennifer Sevin. This time, I was able to meet with Mary Berner, who is also an intern for the CCITT. It was helpful to meet her, as we are both working on collecting information on online turtle sales. We listened to Jennifer explain some of last week’s presentation on Wood turtle genetics because we weren’t able to understand everything and had questions. We also discussed how to move forward with finding information. This week, I began to check more platforms to find turtle listings. After focusing on live turtle listings in earlier weeks, I have been recording listings for taxidermy and preserved turtle parts.
My mentor also provided me with material to look into the South Carolina Turtle bill, which aims to protect native species from the wildlife trade. Reading more about the laws involved in conservation has become more interesting to me. I hope to learn more about the role this plays in conservation.
So far, I have enjoyed this online internship. I had a couple technical difficulties this week. I lost edit access to the document I am working on, but it was brief because my mentor responded quickly. I also was unable to watch a presentation on the turtle bill, but I found more information in articles online. Overall, my experience with my online internship has been great and I am excited to continue. I am considering applying to the University of Richmond, which is where my mentor teaches.
Outside of my internship, I spent time with friends and family. I’m glad to be able to start seeing my friends more often as quarantine relaxes a bit.
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