Farewells to our awesome Intern: Madison (Maddy) Montague

Farewells to our awesome Intern: Madison (Maddy) Montague

This week Ocean Futures Society says goodbye to their graduating intern Maddy Montague. Maddy started interning in May of 2016, and will be heading to Orange County following graduation this June.

Maddy is graduating with a double degree in Environmental Studies and Political Science from the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). For the past four years, Maddy has taken classes such as environmental law, environmental planning, and coastal processes and management that have helped her reach a greater appreciation of the environment and human interaction within the environment. This year, she completed a senior thesis on environmental rhetoric, and won the Reg Robinson Award for Excellence in the field of international relations. Looking to the future, Maddy intends to take a gap year to work before attending law school in Fall of 2018. She will be pursuing a career in environmental law and politics, with specific emphasis on international environmental issues.

At Ocean Futures, Maddy has completed research on the behalf of the organization, compiling information for fact sheets, composing environmental news updates, writing social media content, and drafting letters. She has investigated sustainable fisheries, the National Marine Monuments, the Paris Agreement, the Peoples Climate March and more. Each day in the office presents a new area of research, and she loves to discover and gain knowledge on subjects she has previously not studied.

“I am so thankful for the many opportunities that interning for Ocean Futures has provided me. I have learned so much about environmental non-profit work, and have gained a new perspective on the ocean environment. I enjoyed my time spent here, and I am honored that I had the chance to work with activists and educators such as Jean-Michel and Holly. I can’t wait to see what the Society does next!”

“All of us at OFS are very appreciative of our interns and volunteers. They are one of the main reasons we are able to achieve our many goals of ocean education, advocacy and environmental awareness. Maddy has been instrumental in helping us keep up with 'state of the ocean' issues and we thank her for her wonderful efforts, her dedication and her valuable reports that she provided to Jean-Michel and the entire OFS team. We wish her great success as she continues her education and professional career. We will miss her presence in our office every Tuesday and Thursday but we are very proud of all her amazing achievements. She will continue on and do wonderful things for our water planet; I have full confidence in her and her dedication to making our world a better place. ” Holly Lohuis, Marine biologist and Education associate, OFS.