Women’s lacrosse player Morgan Ernst ’21 completed an incredible internship in Kihei, on the island of Maui, in Hawaii. Ernst, a psychology major, was a research assistant as part of the Ocean Mammal Institute Winter Internship, where she and five others observed behavioral patterns of the Hawaiian humpback whale.

Ernst found the internship through Handshake, a job/internship-finder through LVC’s Breen Center for Graduate Success.

During the three-week January internship, Ernst observed behavioral patterns and interrupted behaviors of the whales caused by outside sources, such as boats or other water vessels coming in close radius of the whale pods.

“It was an experience of a lifetime,” Ernst said, “I met people I would have never met and learned so much about ocean mammalian life and what humans are doing to interrupt their ecosystem and how we can begin to reverse the damage.”

Read more about Ernst’s internship and her LVC Athletics career at www.godutchmen.com.