Brooke Hymiller, a pre-vet student in the animal studies major, is getting firsthand experience with animals this summer as a wildlife attendant at SPCA Tampa Bay. Photo by Penn Alicandro ’22.
At Eckerd College, learning isn’t limited to the classroom. Through internships, community partnerships and other hands-on experiences, students explore their interests and build connections that can shape their future. This summer, you can find Eckerd students broadening their horizons in fields ranging from meteorology and wildlife rehabilitation to conservation, gerontology and law.
Grady Johnson: Chasing Storms and a Childhood Dream
For Grady Johnson, a geoscience major with a minor in mathematics, a fascination with weather started in his family’s garage in Cincinnati, Ohio.
“Some of my favorite childhood memories are of my dad and me sitting in the garage watching powerful storms roll by and refusing to go inside until the tornado sirens started wailing,” Grady says. “Experiences like that truly sparked my passion for meteorology.”
This summer, he is bringing that passion full circle as a broadcast meteorology intern at Local 12, the television station he grew up watching. Through the internship, Grady is gaining hands-on experience with forecasting, severe weather coverage, digital weather tools and television production.
“Local 12 was always the station my family and I tuned into. It was the backdrop of my childhood,” he says. “Having the chance to now be a part of a station that I spent my entire life watching is a surreal and deeply meaningful feeling.”
Bergen Hembree is spending the summer maintaining native plant gardens on campus as an intern for the Eckerd College Conservation Corps. Photo provided by Bergen Hembree.
As he looks ahead, Grady hopes the experience will bring him one step closer to a career in meteorology, whether that’s forecasting and tracking severe weather for the National Weather Service or maybe serving as a meteorologist in the military.
Local 12 in Cincinnati, Ohio is the station where Eckerd rising senior Grady Johnson, an aspiring meteorologist, is intern this summer.
“The internship will help take me from a kid watching storms from the garage to a trusted professional,” Grady says.
Shira Mayer: Discovering Purpose Through Service
When Shira Mayer arrived at Eckerd as a human development major, they thought the future would involve working with children. Then courses in gerontology introduced Shira to a new career path.
“Many of my classes related to gerontology were with Tamar Shovali, and one of the best parts of her classes was how interactive they were with the real world,” says Shira, a rising senior. “Older adults were either brought into the classroom or the class went out to different facilities and locations. Because of that, learning did not only come from readings and assignments, but also from real-world experiences.”
This summer, Shira is putting those lessons into practice through a therapeutic recreation internship at Miami Jewish Health. There, Shira is shadowing Certified Therapeutic Recreation Specialists and learning how individualized activities can help meet residents’ physical, cognitive and emotional needs.
“Within the first week, the job completely clicked,” Shira says. “It often feels like society forgets about elders and pushes them to the side. Through this internship, the need for people to work with this population became clear in a way that had not been as obvious before.”
After graduation, Shira hopes to become a recreational therapist, helping older adults maintain a sense of purpose and connection.
“Ultimately, the goal is to help people feel happy, valued and purposeful,” Shira says.
Shira Mayer found a passion for gerontology at Eckerd, and is following that passion as an intern at Miami Jewish Health. Photo provided by Shira Mayer.
Brooke Hymiller: Answering a Call to Care
Growing up on North Carolina’s Outer Banks, Brooke Hymiller developed an early appreciation for wildlife. That connection to animals eventually brought her to Eckerd, where she is pursuing a double major in biology and animal studies on the pre-veterinary track.
“I have loved animals for as long as I can remember and knew from a young age that I wanted to work with them professionally,” she says.
This summer, Brooke is turning that passion into hands-on experience as a wildlife attendant at SPCA Tampa Bay. In her role, she helps care for injured and orphaned wildlife, working alongside veterinary professionals to prepare animals for release back into the wild.
Brooke says her coursework at Eckerd helped prepare her for the position by providing a strong foundation in animal biology, behavior and physiology.
“Eckerd’s emphasis on hands-on learning has given me opportunities to apply what I have learned in the classroom to real-world animal care settings,” she says. “Ultimately, I want to use my skills to care for animals that cannot advocate for themselves and make a meaningful impact on the health and well-being of wildlife populations.”
Bergen Hembree: Cultivating a Connection to Place
Bergen Hembree has been gardening in one form or another since elementary school. So when she first learned about Eckerd, it wasn’t the waterfront location or sunny weather that caught her attention—it was the community farm.
“I am motivated by grassroots efforts dedicated to local ecosystems and our food systems, and Eckerd is home to many people who participate in this good work every day,” says Bergen, a rising junior majoring in anthropology with a minor in public health.
This summer, Bergen is helping care for the landscapes that first drew her to Eckerd by working as an intern with the Eckerd College Conservation Corps, a student initiative focused on habitat restoration, conservation and sustainability projects.
“My responsibilities include maintaining established native plant gardens on campus and creating or replanting abandoned planting areas,” says Bergen.
While Bergen isn’t certain where her career path will ultimately lead, she says her liberal arts education has opened the door to a wide range of possibilities.
“One thing that I love about anthropology—and a liberal arts education more broadly—is that it sets me up to explore multiple career paths,” she says. “Instead of pushing you toward any one thing, it has the potential to open up entire new fields for you to create something amazing with.”
Brody DelBocchio: Following Connections Beyond the Ballfield
When Brody DelBocchio was recruited to play baseball for the Eckerd Tritons, he never expected it would one day lead him into a courtroom.
This summer, Brody, an international business and economics major, is interning with the law office of Loren Pincus ’01 in Tampa. There, he is observing client meetings, attending court proceedings and conducting legal research to gain a firsthand look at the legal profession.
“I am most looking forward to observing how my employer handles court cases and how he carefully navigates meetings with clients while trying to find the best possible solution for them,” Brody says.
The opportunity grew out of connections he made at Eckerd. Brody first met Pincus, a criminal justice and personal injury attorney, through a networking event. He later learned that Pincus and his baseball coach, Josh Beauregard ’03, had played together at Eckerd years earlier—a relationship that eventually led to the internship.
For Brody, the experience is less about following a predetermined career path and more about exploring possibilities.
“I am using this as an opportunity to discover what I like and don’t like about the field of law and the prospect of becoming a lawyer,” he says.
