A generous endowment from the Chris and Susan Pappas Fund for Charitable Giving removes a critical barrier for aspiring environmental scientists.
At the Shaw Institute, we believe that the future of environmental and human health depends on the students we mentor today. For 35 years, our mission has been to connect these two vital fields through innovative research and community engagement.
Today, we are thrilled to announce a transformative step forward in that mission, in the form of a $30,000 donation from the Chris and Susan Pappas Fund for Charitable Giving to endow our Summer Internship Program.
This generous endowment directly addresses one of our program’s most significant hurdles. Historically, the Shaw Institute internship has been challenging to fund, requiring students to secure funding through their university or scholarships to cover their stipends and living expenses. By establishing this fund, Chris and Susan Pappas are helping us move toward a more accessible future where the brightest young minds in environmental science, biology, and engineering can focus on gaining critical experience.
“We don’t just train interns to collect data; we empower them to find solutions,” said Dr. Charlie Rolsky, Executive Director of the Shaw Institute. “This endowment ensures that we will always be a launchpad for the professionals of tomorrow who will protect our health and our oceans for generations to come.”
Our interns aren’t just observers, they are the backbone of our summer research initiatives. This endowment will support students as they engage in:
- Pioneering Contaminants Research: Investigating the “forever chemical” crisis through a NOAA-funded study on PFAS bioaccumulation in local seal populations, alongside groundbreaking research into microplastics. Using state-of-the-art FTIR and Py-GC/MS systems, interns help identify plastic particles in everything from local shellfish to human tissue samples from patients battling Cancer, Alzheimer’s, and Crohn’s disease.
- Public Health Monitoring: Conducting weekly bacteria fieldwork at frequented beaches around the Blue Hill Peninsula to ensure the safety of swimmers and local seafood.
- Marine Conservation: Monitoring for Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) and managing our 200-gallon touch tank to educate the community on preserving Maine’s ecosystems.
- Career Development: Receiving direct mentorship on resume building, cover letter writing, and navigating the complexities of a career after college.
Beyond the typical 30–40 hour workweek, our interns experience the ‘wonderful chaos’ of being a scientist. Whether it’s responding to marine mammal strandings, participating in seal necropsies, or conducting PFAS chemical testing across the Blue Hill Peninsula, these students gain real-world experience that cannot be replicated in a classroom. It’s not all grit, though; we make sure there is a healthy amount of fun, with annual puffin boat tours, meals at our favorite local spots, and a celebratory end-of-summer cookout.
“Chris and I both became engineers, following fathers who built their lives in science — his a PhD organic chemist, mine a mining engineer,” said Susan Pappas. “We’ve seen across generations how the right early opportunity can shape a career, and ultimately shape the field itself. The interns at Shaw are the future of scientific research, and we’re honored to help open that door for them.”
This $30,000 gift from the Chris and Susan Pappas Fund ensures that the Shaw Institute remains a vital hub for connecting research to education. It allows us to continue integrating our interns into partnerships with leading institutions like NYU, Harvard, and ASU while grounding our findings in the local Maine community.
We are deeply grateful to the Pappas family for their vision and their commitment to support science. Together, we are ensuring that the next generation of researchers has the tools and the support they need to tackle the environmental challenges of tomorrow.