Hands-On Experience Inspires Next Gen in South Carolina

Not only does South Carolina’s ACE Basin Reserve protect one of the largest undeveloped estuaries on the East Coast, it’s also cultivating the next generation of marine scientists and coastal professionals.

For decades, students from Camp Road Middle School on James Island have had a chance to explore potential careers in coastal professions through “shadow day” experiences at the Reserve. Seeing how popular the program was, not to mention the steady stream of requests from other schools, the Reserve’s team has steadily expanded it to support schools across the region. Rather than traditional field trip visits, students are able to choose a career path that they’re curious about and spend time with a professional who has made that occupation a career.

“At one point, just about every little kid wants to be a marine biologist when they grow up,” says Reserve Education Coordinator Erica Hardy. “Once they get here, many quickly discover that the field is very different from what they imagined.” 

Throughout a typical shadow day, students rotate through immersive stations led by Reserve staff and state partner biologists and educators. In fisheries-focused sessions, they dissect fish to examine anatomy, sort and analyze mock trawl catches to simulate real fisheries research, and tour a working research vessel to see the tools and technology used to monitor coastal ecosystems. Shorebird and sea turtle programs include mock nest inventories, food web explorations, predator–prey investigations, and even simulated stomach content analysis.

By engaging with real equipment, data, and people who work in the field, students gain a clearer picture of what these careers are truly like. 

“I understood in person what it really would look like to work here. I could really grasp how I’d like it or not,” one student participant noted. Another observed, “The biggest thing that I learned was how marine biologists need to be able to go on boats for days at a time.”

“By participating in our group job shadow program, students get a glimpse of what it’s really like to be a fisheries biologist,” says Hardy. “Some students may realize that they don’t want to spend 10 days on a boat or work with stinky fish, and that’s okay! But others become even more excited to pursue this career path.”

The Reserve is the only organization in the region that offers job shadowing in marine and coastal science at this scale. With access to research vessels and professionals, they showcase the wide variety of roles within coastal resource management.