Sofia standing in front of a bioswale in Cape Canaveral.
Sofia Cordoba, an undergraduate student at the University of Central Florida majoring in biology with a focus on zoology, has been selected as Florida Sea Grant’s first-ever Community Engaged Intern (CEI). The CEI program is a part of the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and Sea Grant’s efforts to broaden participation in marine and coastal professions by providing training and mentorship to the next generation of scientists, decision-makers, and citizens.
“Hosting a CEI student within Florida Sea Grant is an important step to engage undergraduate students in learning about coastal and marine professions and the importance of working with community stakeholders on coastal issues,” says Holly Abeels, Florida Sea Grant UF/IFAS Extension Agent in Brevard County and CEI internship supervisor. “The CEI student can learn about Sea Grant, UF/IFAS Extension, and the local community in which they are working. This internship allows the student to be better informed about potential future career opportunities that they might not have been aware of previously.”
In her CEI role, Sofia is responsible for creating communication materials on green stormwater infrastructure, including bioswale implementation, and educating volunteers and residents on flooding management projects in local governments. The green stormwater infrastructure project is part of a regional resiliency initiative involving several Sea Grant programs, universities, and agencies from states in the southeast Atlantic.
Sofia’s internship involves hands-on engagement with the project and community. During her short time in the internship, she has worked on developing an educational curriculum for the citizen science pollinator monitoring program within the city bioswales, has participated in citizen science surveys with community members, and has engaged with City staff and Stetson University researchers.
“One of the highlights of this internship is the creative freedom I’ve been given to develop projects,” says Sofia. “I find it so rewarding to interact with professionals in the field, gain insights from various perspectives on conservation and environmentalism, and utilize that information to create an online web course and bring my idea to life.”
This internship is not just another milestone for Sofia; it is an opportunity for her to connect with her passions and interests while helping address an environmental issue that has been present in her very own backyard.
“Living in South Florida, flooding is so common. This internship is a unique opportunity for me to gain more experience in researching green infrastructure and witness firsthand how communities come together to address challenges, implement solutions, and assess the viability for broader application in other cities and towns.”
As a biology major concentrating on zoology, Sofia’s enthusiasm for finding solutions to pressing environmental problems is also sparked by her interest in the diversity of wildlife and their adaptations to specific environments.
“ I was always so drawn to zoology because it is so interesting to think there are different wildlife in different parts of the world that are adapted to their specific environment. They live in different biomes and all have different traits. We can learn so much from animals as to how they can coexist with their environment, and implement that into future infrastructure so that we were not making as big of an impact.”
Sofia will be joining other CEI students throughout the country for a field experience in North Carolina at the end of the month, exploring interdisciplinary watershed community issues and freshwater, coastal, and marine water resource management in the southeastern U.S.
“Sofia has worked so diligently to create amazing products for the project, to engage with members of the project team, and is always willing to learn and jump right in,” says Abeels. “Sofia’s work has positively impacted the community in Cape Canaveral by being wholly engaged in directly working with Cape Canaveral staff, researchers from Stetson University, and Cape Canaveral community members.”
Read more about Sofia’s journey as a Florida Sea Grant Community Engagement Intern in her monthly blog.
