Jennifer Jackson

I am Jenny, a senior in Stanford's marine biology program and I went to Raja Ampat, Indonesia this summer to work for the non-profit organization IndoOcean Project. During my time there I learned the ethical guidelines and concerns of conservation practices, especially in developing, tourism-dependent countries like Indonesia, how to safely and effectively build, deploy, grow and maintain an artificial reef and the different reef structures used in different environments, how to interact with dive center customers professionally, and how to lead dives using leadership skills, tidal charts, no decompression limit time charts, air consumption calculations and more. I now have over seven conservation diver specialties, my coral gardener certificate as well as my dive master certificate. All of these, on top of the invaluable lessons I learned during my internship, will shape my future as a marine conservationist and scientific diver. You have provided me with a truly life-changing experience. Attached is a picture of me and a fellow intern taking pictures of Acropora corals on the artificial reef we then analyzed using software that can calculate the change in growth of the coral over time so that we can see how well the coral is growing or not growing.