The National Park Service Submerged Resources Center and the Our World Underwater Scholarship Society are pleased to announce that the first NPS Our World Underwater scholarship intern is Brianne Billups of Camarillo, California.

Brianne is 21 years old and is currently employed as an Interpretive Park Guide at the Channel Islands National Park. She is a Certified National Park Service Scuba Diver and a PADI Certified Rescue Diver. In the summer time, she participates in the “Live Dive” underwater video program which is held at Anacapa Island. Also, she teaches school groups and the public about the Channel Islands and the marine life found there. She is interested in education, outreach, marine biology and ecology.

Brianne is a transfer student from the Ventura County Community College system and maintained a 3.78 Grade Point Average. She earned a Certificate of Marine Studies from Oxnard College and published a scientific research project on the survival and settling patterns of Red Abalone, (Haliotis rufescens,) called “Larval Competency of Red Abalone.” She also completed a nine day internship with the Coastal Marine Biolabs in the spring where she extracted DNA from local rockfish species and uploaded sequences from a specific gene from the fish to the Barcode of Life Database.

Following her internship with the National Park Service, Brianne will be attending the University of California Santa Barbara’s College of Creative Studies Undergraduate Biology Program in the fall to do research on marine life.

Brianne will have three months to travel throughout the National Park System to see and experience firsthand how the oldest non-military diving program in the federal government manages its underwater heritage for future generations.