Three students from the University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography (GSO) were accepted to a prestigious fellowship program starting at the beginning of this semester.
Seventy students are selected to take part in the Sea Grant and Knauss Fellowship Program every year. The Knauss Program gives graduate students the opportunity to study marine and ocean policies at the federal level in Washington D.C. for a year.
Clea Harrelson, Kimberly Ohnemus and Elle Wibisono are the three URI students attending the Knauss Program this year.
Teresa Crean, a community planner and coastal management extension specialist with URI’s Coastal Resource Center, is the Extension Specialist for the Rhode Island Sea Grant, the grant that works in tandem with the Knauss Program.
“I think the story of sea grant and the relevance of Rhode Island in the sea grant program is notable,” Crean said. “The sea grant program has its roots in Rhode Island.”
Crean said that Rhode Island Senator Claiborne Pell worked with John A. Knauss to create the National Sea Grant Program in 1966. Knauss would go on to be the founding Dean of the GSO.
“URI has a rich history in sending our best and brightest students from the Ocean State,” Crean said. “And we get returns on that by having our students return [to URI], but also because we have rooting in sea grants and a good network of professionals we all know.”
The application process for the fellowship is intense, according to Crean. Students must go through federal process proposals, submit multiple letters of recommendation from both undergraduate and graduate educators and go through an interview process. The process begins in the fall semester and continues through the spring semester every year.
Monica Allard Cox, a marine research specialist at URI’s Coastal Institute who works in the fellowship program, talked about her love for the program.
“It’s a very coveted fellowship,” Cox said. “It is the highest level of students who are put in Washington, D.C.”
Wibisono, who graduated from the GSO last year, started her year in Washington, D.C. a month ago. Wibisono earned a B.A. from Wellesley College and doctorates in fishing and fisheries as well as sciences and management from URI.
Born and raised in Indonesia, Wibisono was influenced by her upbringing when choosing the path for her future.
“I grew up doing a lot of scuba diving,” Wibisono said. “I absolutely love the coral reef and seeing how different healthy and destroyed reef ecosystems differ.”
Wibisono also spoke about how she got an up close look into fisheries from a young age because of scuba diving. Fisheries are communities of fish in bodies that are heavily targeted by fishing, both commercial and recreational.
While the fellowship started only a month ago, Wibisono has already experienced a lot, including a budget reconciliation in the U.S. Senate dealing with ocean fishery-related amendments.
“I did research on how the senators should be looking at the information in the amendments that came over,” Wibisono said. “There were 700 or 800 amendments that came from the Republican side.”
Many students who take part in the Knauss Fellowship stay in the capital and work in the government after it ends, said Cox. Wibisono said that she can see herself doing the same.
“If I am able to stay for at least another year or so, I would definitely love that,” she said.
Wibisono credits her time with Austin Humphries, her advisor at URI, to getting her to this point.
“Being [in Washington D.C.] is a pretty steep learning curve,” said Wibisono. “They say it’s like learning to drink from a fire hydrant. But I feel like the things I did at URI really prepared me for the experience.”