NEVBD-TEC Summer Internship Program

For the past three weeks, I have been working at the Virginia Department of Health under the supervision of the Epidemiology team. It has been an incredible learning experience so far! Week 1: I completed initial training modules and attended state epidemiology calls and joint meetings with the Department of Forestry on invasive species. To support our upcoming field work, we learned about Wavyleaf grass and Beech Leaf Disease so that if encountered we know what it is and to report it! This week we have also gotten into tick basics and practicing microscope identification. This was hard for me since I don't have a lot of practice in insect identification but the keys and trainings have been incredibly helpful for me! Week 2:  This week we transitioned into the field to conduct our first tick drags! After a group training session to learn the technique, we did a second drag at a location I selected. I have been assigned the task of finding a site in which I can conduct routine drag...

Today concludes my third week interning for the St. Lawrence County's Public Health Department at SUNY Potsdam with their Mosquito Research Team! So far, it's been pretty great! Week one started off with some safety training and precautions before we got into the general project details and background. After all the formalities and verbal trainings during day one, I was taught how to make dry ice with CO2 to use in our traps. After that and gathering all our supplies for a typical day's work, we loaded up our car and headed out to get a tour of our collection sites. Once we returned with our specimens we practiced identifying them underneath microscopes, which took up the rest of our day. I find the identification process the most interesting part, as there's so many specific little things to pay attention to in certain orders all to get to the correct species. The rest of the week proceeded similarly to our first day, except for getting a flat tire on my third day whil...

 In my first week at the Arthropod Borne Disease Laboratory (ABDL) in Suffolk County NY, I spent time getting used to the new workplace environment, setting up my email, and starting work on my computer. After I completed some mandatory trainings, | looked at both tick and mosquito samples under a microscope to start identifying the different species. In the first week I learned quite a bit about mosquitos and ticks from my colleagues, and from doing research and reading articles online. Once I had a foundation in tick and tick-borne diseases, I started researching topics that interested me to look into. I originally planned to research tick-borne disease Ehrlichiosis but ultimately settled on a different topic fro my project. During the first week I was also able to go out into the field to collect ticks with my colleagues and get practice identifying ticks in real time, and with specimen collection. ABDL Workspace In my second week at the ABDL, I attended a tick symposium at Ston...

Hello! My name is David Kern and I am starting June 8th with the Delaware Department of Natural Resources working studying tick and mosquitos! I am a rising junior at the University of Delaware double majoring in Entomology and Wildlife Conservation and Ecology! I am so excited to be a part of this awesome team and to learn as much as I can!