By: Ashley Rogers, Education Intern
A big, warm welcome to our second summer intern, Ashley Rogers, to the NJSOC community! Ashley recently graduated from Drew University with Honors in Biology (B.S.), having successfully completed a thesis in bird habituation. Ashley was also proud to be inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society and Tri-Beta Biological Honor Society. In her free time, Ashley enjoys volunteering, especially with senior citizens at assisted living facilities, in order to combat loneliness and social isolation amongst this population.
Ashley is passionate about the welfare of all animals, especially those at risk of extinction. She believes that it is essential to educate the public about humans’ adverse impacts on ecosystems, including habitat fragmentation, pollution, and climate change. This summer she will work with our Staff to develop NJSOC’s first Ecological Research as Education Network (EREN) project. EREN aims to provide professional research opportunities to undergraduates around the world and SOC will model one of their projects for a new curriculum for our visiting school groups.
Along with her EREN project, Ashley hopes to help our staff with salamander coverboarding, a long-term study which examines the population dynamics of these amphibians on-site. Ashley is also eager to assist in the care of our ambassador animals and to photograph benthic macroinvertebrates for our species catalog. Lastly, she will be helping lead NJSOC’s summer programs, including our Music Camp, Watershed Institute Nature Camp, and Girls Leadership Camp.
Ashley is excited to engage in environmental education, as well as ecological research initiatives, this summer. In Fall 2026, Ashley plans to attend graduate school to pursue a field related to biology, such as animal behavior or ecology and evolution. Ashley’s long-term goal is to work hands-on with non-human animals to improve their lives in the face of ever-growing threats, like habitat degradation and climate change. Ashley believes that her work at NJSOC will provide the scaffolding necessary to achieve her future ambitions and is anxious to begin this next chapter at Stokes!