[panchan114]

Hi I'm 18 and I want do marine biology as a major in college and as a job. So I was wondering if anybody knows where I can get hands on experience for this summer without causing me to go broke?

[kp2171]

Well... is there a college or university near you? If so, find the science dept and go visit. Most biology depts will have a bulletin board somewhere in the bldg with ads for internships. You may or may not be able to get internships at this point... sometimes they are limited to college students who are already enrolled.

Also, you can contact the bio dept and ask about the programs and who is most familiar with association with a marine bio program.

Don't be afraid to ask people for help. If you don't get it, it isn't your failure.

Where are you located and why have you chosed this field?

[panchan114]

I live in New York City. The colleges near me are University of Maine, cobleskills stony brook and others. I want to do marine biology because I like auatic animals and animals in general. But mainly marine life so I want a job where I can work with marine animals.

[shygrneyzs]

Volunteer your time at one of the places you mentioned, or even one of the zoos in NYC. There must be marine life in at least one of those zoos.

[u08dc4]

There are loads of volunteer programs if you look on line, the cheapest ones I've seen are in europe particularly Greece, they may cost a couple of hundred pounds but you could try and organise sponsored events to raise money.
I'm going away for a month this summer to do coral reef volunteering and it cost me an arma and a leg! But fundraising really helped!
Quest Underseas | Expeditions to Africa & South America this is a quite expensive site about £2,000 for a month (also not the group I'm going with) but they do dive train you, which is useful for marine bio.

Don't worry too much about getting experience before university as there will be plenty of opertunities once you get there that will be more valuable and less expensive!