Lane Boyer is a nationally ranked member of the University of Arkansas cross country track team, where he has qualified for regional and national championship competitions. He is also a senior geology major in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences. In that role he qualified for this past summer's Woods Hole Partnership in Education Program.

Boyer was one of 16 students from across the country picked for the summer internship program at Woods Hole, Mass. The students learned about marine and environmental sciences, conducted research, and discovered the range of career opportunities in their fields. The program is aimed at college juniors and seniors who have had some course work in marine and/or environmental sciences. The students took part  in a four-week course focused on global climate change, then spent six-to-eight-weeks on individual research projects, culminating in a public presentation of their research results.  The course began June 1 and ended with the research presentations on Aug. 13.

Boyer, who is from Fredonia, Kan., studied cold water coral habitats in Alaska's Glacier Bay with research mentor Kathy Scanlon of the U.S. Geological Survey. He said this first internship experience expanded his academic horizons.

"For me the Partnership in Education Program was much more than learning about science. I not only have a better understanding of the field ... this is going to help me with networking and has given me many new opportunities."

The "partnership" in the program is among six institutions based in Woods Hole: the Marine Biological Laboratory; the Northeast Fisheries Science Center of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; the Sea Education Association; the U.S. Geological Survey; the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution; and the Woods Hole Research Center. Course instructors and research project mentors in the program are drawn from the staff of these six organizations. Students earn four college credits for the program through the University of Maryland Eastern Shore.