Communicating about Coral Plasticity

I’m Savannah Masters, a senior at USC, earning my M.A. and B.A. in Environmental Studies at the same time. I am currently nearing the end of my summer Environmental Communications Internship with the Wrigley Institute, where I have been working with Dr. Carly Kenkel and the Cnidarian Evolutionary Ecology (CEE) Lab. But my journey to finding the science communication career path has not always been straightforward, so I’d like to share how I got here in the first place.

I grew up in the suburbs of Dallas, Texas, where career paths in sustainability and environmental science were not something I often heard about. In fact, I was planning to major in acting in college and that’s how I first entered USC. However, towards the end of my senior year in high school, after rounds of grueling auditions, I began to question whether the life of an actor was really for me. On the other hand, I had always loved nature. I grew up camping, watching Shark Week and nature documentaries on Animal Planet, and I had just completed AP Environmental Science with a perfect score. I had always hoped my life would have a greater purpose by helping to build a better world for current and future generations. So I changed my major to Environmental Studies right before the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

Since then, I have never once regretted it. But the world of environmental careers is so broad, I had no clue what might be for me. I have tried my hand at science and research, which is fascinating, but not the right fit for me in the long term. I come from an artistic background, but I no longer wished to make a career performing. Where was the combination of science and creativity that I was looking for? As I learned more about environmental science, issues, and solutions, I began to wonder why the whole world wasn’t aware of such things. Someone has to spread the knowledge that the scientific community has garnered in their research!

For me, that’s where I began seeking roles in science communication. It is a field that allows me to use my scientific knowledge, as well as my creativity, to share complex scientific topics to people from all backgrounds in exciting and artistic ways.

This Wrigley Science Communication Internship has afforded me the opportunity to work with Dr. Carly Kenkel and the CEE Lab to take their various research on corals and translate it into content the general public can enjoy and understand. My main projects this summer have included composing an entirely new website for the lab, building a social media presence by creating the @ceelabusc Instagram page, and producing a short video introducing the lab’s most recent project on coral plasticity (how easily they adapt). These projects have helped to refresh the CEE Lab’s public image on its online platforms, as well as increase awareness of their research and appeal to a general audience. Furthermore, I will be teaching Carly and some other lab members how to use and update the website and Instagram, so that they will know how to carry on when my internship ends.

Over the course of this summer, I improved many of my more concrete skills, such as website design and video production/editing. However, one of the most valuable things I learned was how to work independently and act as an expert in my field. When my mentor and I first talked about what my work would entail, there was a lot that even she didn’t know. In some ways, I had to use my knowledge to guide her decisions just as much as she was guiding mine. Because I will be entering the workforce after I graduate this coming spring, being able to take an active role in decision-making and giving my advice on choices related to communications has been extremely valuable.

The most rewarding part of my experience was seeing how the CEE Lab members reacted to what I made and how pleased they were to have these new platforms with which to share their work. The projects I was tasked with are not something that any of their team currently works on, but they are still so important to the lab’s mission. I am grateful that I have the skills to fill a unique role like this one, and I hope to continue doing this type of work in the future.

Looking forward, I plan to continue my work of combining art and various media with scientific knowledge to bring important research to wide audiences and increase accessibility to science. If people don’t know about an issue, they don’t know why they should care or what they should do about it. Any volume of research may be useless if it is not communicated effectively to the right people. I also hope to explore other creative means such as podcasting, documentary production, music, and pretty much anything I can weasel my way into, as a means to further my science communication skill set and widen the scope of my work. I hope that my work can reach people in a meaningful way and thus help to usher in a more environmentally-conscious society.