Endowment fund supports unique internship for Eastern Shore students
“I learned so much,” said Carter Nottingham, now a freshman at Virginia Tech, as he spoke about his recent research into scallop DNA and morphology as part of the Bonnie Sue Internship Program with VIMS and William & Mary’s Batten School for Coastal & Marine Sciences at the Eastern Shore Lab (ESL). “I don’t think many kids my age get to experience what I’ve experienced.”
Nottingham was one of five students accepted into the 2024 Bonnie Sue Internship Program for summer interns. “This is a great program, one of the better things we do, giving young students hands-on experience in marine science” said ESL Director Dick Snyder, addressing attendees who gathered at ESL in mid-August to watch the interns present the results of their individual research projects. “It helps students see what their careers might be, and most interns do stay in this field, so it gives them a jump start.”
High school and college interns assist ESL faculty and staff with ongoing research projects. Kendyl Farrell, another Bonnie Sue intern and a sophomore at Virginia Tech, spent the summer trawling and studying nekton, marine animals with the ability to move and swim independently of currents such as fish, squid and crabs. “This is something I really want to do with my life,” said Farrell, “so I thought this was the perfect opportunity to get the field experience and extra knowledge.”
Nathan Jones, now a freshman at Salisbury University who used his internship to study microbial biofilms, agreed. “It was very beneficial because I’ve never been in a marine biology setting, and it’s really set me up for the future and the work in this type of environment.”
The internship is also unique in that it offers opportunities exclusively to local students from the Accomack and Northampton Counties on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. “I feel that this year really showed me how vital all the organisms are around here,” said Farrell. “It really opened my eyes to how important where we live is and the environment around us.”
Eastern Shore native Reba Turner Smith can attest to the influence of the program. Once an intern, Turner Smith is now ESL’s Castagna Shellfish Research Hatchery manager and a senior research specialist. “I remember getting a very broad view of what it would be like to work in research,” she said. “I was able to tease out what I was good at, what I liked and what I didn’t.”
The Bonnie Sue Internship Program was started with enthusiastic support from the local community, championed by Steve Johnsen HON '18, a former Eastern Shore resident and former president of the VIMS Foundation who was instrumental in establishing and maintaining the endowment fund. “As the program continued, there were additional challenges getting funding and we recognized there was a need to solidify that.”
Johnsen approached Robert “Bobby” Turner, who for years had captained a charter fishing vessel in the area, the Bonnie Sue, which had been built by Turner’s father and named for his mother. Johnsen collaborated with Turner to find support for the internship program. “Thousands of people went out with Bobby,” said Johnsen. “We did an outreach program and many of them gave, and many of them still give in recognition of the great times spent with Bobby on the Bonnie Sue vessel.” To honor Turner’s unique impact in Wachapreague and his essential help in supporting the internship program, the endowment fund was named after his celebrated vessel.
Today the Bonnie Sue Internship Program Fund continues to support annual summer interns at the ESL. Since the endowment fund was established in 2010, the program has welcomed approximately five interns every summer. Alumni have gone on to complete graduate programs in marine science, work in the aquaculture industry and for government agencies and teach K-12.
Among contributors to the fund is the Accomack Garden Club. “One of our core missions is conservation,” said club member Lynn Calvert, “and what’s more conservationist than this? It’s so nice to see bright, motivated, involved young people.”
To make a difference in a budding scientist’s life by supporting the Bonnie Sue Internship Program Fund, visit VIMS.edu/giving/where-to-give and click on the “Bonnie Sue Internship Program (4262).”