Chris Tompkins:
Greetings! My name is Christopher Tompkins, and I am a rising senior at Union College. I am pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Geosciences with a focus on Environmental Geology. I graduated from Mercersburg Academy in 2023 where I played on the varsity Football and Baseball teams and participated in musical theater and several outdoor programs. During my childhood I became captivated by sea travel from the sailing vessels used in major exploration and the extravagant ships during the golden age of ocean liners, which led to my goal through most of high school of attending either the Naval Academy, Coast Guard Academy, or Merchant Marine Academy. Ultimately, I did not end up achieving this goal, but my fascination with the maritime world remained strong and I also had the benefit of further developing my interests and potential goals. My experiences in Mercersburg’s outdoor programs and overall enjoyment of the natural world guided me towards the geosciences in college, in which I have had the opportunity to conduct field work in Peru, Panama, and the mountains of New York and Vermont. Through these experiences I have built my passion for understanding the environment and learning how to support and protect it in the current and future world. As I prepare for my senior year, I am immensely excited for my thesis project where I will be exploring possible explanations for the drought experienced in New York in summer of 2025 and how drought frequency is changing. The project will connect well with my previous research fellowship at Union, during which I worked to build a device to measure lake ice depth in an attainable, cost-effective manner by using repurposed soil moisture probes. While at Union I have also participated in organizing events for the sustainability house on campus where I was a resident for a year, including hosting sustainable food pop-ups on campus and organizing cleanups in local natural areas and campus trails. In my fraternity I was elected sustainability chair and house manager of my fraternity, the Kappa Alpha Society, where I have organized a can and bottle return program to promote recycling in the house as well as community outreach events and a water saving initiative within the fraternity. Along with my social and academic endeavors, I am also an active member in the campus music community as a member of both the college jazz ensemble and college orchestra as a trombone player and vocalist. In my spare time I am an avid enjoyer of hiking, canoeing, camping, and backcountry skiing. With that, I am thrilled to be joining NAMEPA as an intern where I look forward to building a strong foundation of knowledge and using my skill set in assisting projects throughout the summer. I am excited to have found an organization where I can bridge my interests in a meaningful way and continue to grow them. I can’t wait to get started and get to know everyone here!
Aiden Durkee:
Hello everyone! My name is Aidan Durkee, and I am very excited to be interning at NAMEPA this summer. I am an upcoming senior at the University of Vermont, where I am currently pursuing a master’s degree in English. During High School I was an editor for the school newspaper and a member of the school’s Amnesty International club. At college I competed in statewide mock trial competitions and attended community clean up events. I love helping others and supporting people in any way I can. In my free time, I enjoy reading, writing, and watching movies. I find that I am best able to express myself through writing, where I have the time and space to properly lay out my thoughts. Aside from writing, I also love spending time out in nature. I have always had an immense appreciation for our natural environment, especially our oceans. When looking for internship opportunities, I heard from a family friend about NAMEPA and what they do. I loved the idea of being able to intern at a company that is actually fighting for a cause I care about. Now I have a chance to use my writing skills to help spread awareness and protect the environment that I care so deeply about. Being able to apply my skills and education to such a worthwhile cause is truly an amazing opportunity and I am thankful for NAMEPA for giving me this opportunity. I will be working to help educate people on how to protect our maritime environment, spread important news about our environment and maritime industries, and share interesting maritime facts. I look forward to the useful experience this internship will give me and I’m excited to contribute to a cause I believe in. I can’t wait to get started and write about how to keep our beautiful environment safe and clean!