Hi,
I am a current law student in the United States. Originally from Georgia, I moved to New York to attend the country's number one-ranked environmental law program at the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University. I am excited to share that I will graduate this May (2026) with the Advanced Certificate in Environmental Law. After graduation, I will be studying all summer to prepare for the bar exam in July (which is the exam needed to become licensed to practice law in the state). Afterwards, I have the opportunity to volunteer through WILDLIFE ACT's Wildlife Conservation Program in August (2026). I will be traveling from New York to Seychelles to volunteer for four weeks doing marine conservation work.
I am currently looking for support to help fund the journey there. I have already been through the interview process, been accepted to the position, and paid my deposit. If you would like to and are able to support my journey and the work I will be doing to contribute to native habitat restoration and the island's ecology monitoring, please consider donating. Assisting the Environmental Team with this project is a dream come true for me! I am so thankful for the opportunity to do meaningful work to help the environment and to learn about the conservation project on the North Island, all while developing a better understanding of how tourism is an important pathway for island and marine conservation.
Thank you for your support!
For those who are curious, below is more information on some of the types of work I will be doing as a volunteer.
Island and Marine Conservation
- Marking and monitoring of Green (Chelonia midas) and Hawksbill Sea Turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata) populations.
- Daily beach patrols, including night patrols (tagging of individuals when needed).
- Excavations of hatched turtle nests – shell counts of old nests (when needed).
- Marking and monitoring of the Aldabra Giant Tortoise (Aldabrachelys gigantea) population.
- Finding and recording GPS locations of tortoises for territory identification and movement patterns across the island.
- Monitoring the growth rates of baby Aldabra Giant Tortoises (Aldabrachelys gigantea) within a baby tortoise pen.
- Rehabilitation of the endemic vegetation of North Island, particularly the Takamaka forest.
Habitat Restoration Work
- Coconut seedling removal in rehabilitated areas.
- Cultivation of seedlings in the tree nursery.
- Planting of indigenous trees in rehabilitated areas.
- Alien vegetation removal, focusing on the three hills on the island.
- Marsh vegetation clearing (dry season only).
- Marking and recapturing the Seychelles Black Mud Turtle (Pelusios subniger parietalis) population to obtain population estimates.
- Locating and recording the GPS locations of White-tailed Tropicbird nests.
- Conducting bird counts around the island and monitoring migrant bird species.
- Snorkeling along the coral reefs of the island to compile a photographic ID database of corals and fish occurring on the reefs and to monitor changes in coral.
- Monitoring beach movement patterns on the three beaches of the island using photographs and Abney levels.
- Collecting and digitizing the oceanic trash that washes onto the beaches of North Island. This data is entered into an online database managed by The Ocean Conservancy to assess trends in global trash movements around the world’s oceans.
- Digitizing the field fauna and flora database of North Island.