Juniors Colby Moore (left) and Keller Smith are working alongside seasoned herpetologists while interning at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. Photos courtesy of Keller Smith ’26
Eight years ago Eckerd College marine science graduate Lauren Vonnahme ’10, a senior museum specialist in the Herpetology Department at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, reached out to Eckerd Associate Professor of Biology Jeff Goessling, Ph.D., and offered to help arrange Winter Term internships for Eckerd students at the museum.
This would be something unique. The Herpetology Department regularly hosts graduate students, postdoctoral candidates and professionals, but rarely undergraduates. The College and the Herpetology Department came to terms, and now, every other year, two Eckerd students spend an intense three weeks in January during the College’s Winter Term working, learning and forging relationships at one of the world’s most prestigious centers of research and education in the natural sciences.
Established in 1869, the museum holds collections of research specimens numbering more than 32 million, and its collections of fossils and insects are among the largest in the world. The museum also conducts research in anthropology, astronomy, entomology, herpetology, ichthyology, invertebrates, mammalogy, mineralogy, ornithology, and vertebrate/invertebrate paleontology.
It is home to a 485,000-volume library on natural history and is visited by more than 5 million people every year—including students from Eckerd College. “We are the only ones sending undergrads,” Goessling says. “We have a specific way of plugging our students in. Our biology program here is a good fit for the type of work the museum does. So now we have this direct pipeline with the museum.”
Colby and Keller in front of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City
In the pipeline this year are Colby Moore, a junior biology and physics student from Bainbridge Island, Washington, and Keller Smith, a junior biology student from Westminster, Massachusetts. They walk to the museum from their Airbnb a few blocks away, and they’re both studying herpetology. “We’re getting to do a little bit of everything at the museum,” Keller explains. “It could be pulling the specimens from the collections and preparing them to be loaned.
“But the amount of research that goes on here and the size and complexity of the museum is amazing,” he adds. “A lot of the work is done behind the scenes, so the public doesn’t see most of it.
“It’s been great being surrounded by people who have the same interests. We’re working with grad students and the leading researchers in their field, and it’s been really cool to talk with them. And we’re making contacts. I want to go to grad school and eventually get a research position, and now I’ll be able to say I’ve had experience working with collections at the American Museum of Natural History. Having done this is really valuable.”
Colby says working with seasoned herpetologists is a reward in itself. “It’s amazing to be around people with similar interests who are at the top of their field,” he says. “To see how the research is being done, how big projects come to form and the process that’s involved. This is really valuable for what I plan to do later on.”
As Goessling puts it, “They get to meet and work with people who are some of the best scientists on Earth. That’s special.”
