With support from the Julia R. Brown Education and Research Fund, MAS Marine Biodiversity and Conservation student Sophie Tesluk traveled to Rome to complete an in-person internship with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. There, she worked directly with FAO’s sustainable aquaculture team to strengthen guidance for more climate-resilient and environmentally sustainable aquaculture practices. This experience gave Sophie valuable hands-on policy experience, expanded her global professional network, and deepened her commitment to building a more sustainable future for aquaculture.
The funding that I received from the Julia R. Brown supported my Marine Biodiversity and Conservation capstone project, which brought me to Rome, Italy to complete a volunteer internship with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. Without the Julia R. Brown fund, I would not have had the resources to travel to Rome and intern with FAO in person, and my capstone work would not have been nearly as formative or impactful.
My capstone project focuses on the FAO’s Guidelines for Sustainable Aquaculture (GSA), a set of recommendations designed to help policymakers and aquaculture stakeholders make the global aquaculture sector more equitable, sustainable, and resilient. Specifically, my project aims to operationalize chapter five of the guidelines, which is the chapter involving recommendations on improving the sustainability of resource use and ecosystem management throughout global aquaculture.
Resource use in aquaculture is not as sustainable or climate-friendly as it could and should be; as a result, our aquatic ecosystems are being degraded, and species biodiversity is decreasing. On top of this, there is room to implement many more climate-friendly practices across the aquaculture sector; recycling water, nutrients, implementing aquaculture practices that sequester carbon, and conserving energy throughout the sector are just some of the many practices recommended in chapter five of the GSA. My project aims to make the guidelines in this chapter more concrete, easier to implement, and monitorable; as a result, I hope to help the global aquaculture sector prioritize ecosystems and species biodiversity while also improving global food security and building the sector’s climate resilience.
The highlight of my capstone project was traveling to Rome to collaborate directly with the FAO sustainable aquaculture team who are working to operationalize the chapters of the GSA, which was supported directly through the Julia R. Brown fund. This funding gave me the opportunity to spend a month in Rome, going into FAO headquarters every day to develop my project and consult in person with world-renowned experts in sustainable aquaculture.
This was truly the experience of my professional career to date. I learned so much from the in-person collaboration that I experienced at FAO every day, and I strongly feel that my capstone project will be much more effective because of the feedback and guidance that I received from the sustainable aquaculture team members that I met with in Rome. Additionally, I made lifelong connections and strengthened my professional network while interning at FAO. These relationships will be a huge asset as I graduate from the MAS MBC program and search for roles in the sustainable aquaculture space where I can make the most impact in driving aquaculture towards long-term sustainability.
The most impactful part of my experience was being exposed to the huge diversity of cultures and perspectives at FAO. As a part of the United Nations, FAO is truly an international organization. I was lucky to connect with people from all over the world in my time at headquarters, and loved getting to experience both Italian culture (in my day-to-day) and international cultures while in the office every day. It was a deeply unique workplace, with multiple languages spoken often within the same conversation and employees bringing lessons and knowledge from their travels and diverse lived experiences into their roles as global food and agriculture policymakers. Every person I interacted with had unique insights and perspectives to share, and I will carry these perspectives with me as I begin my career in the aquaculture space.
I’m deeply grateful to the Julia R. Brown fund for making this experience possible. I gained invaluable experience in the aquaculture space, and also as a young professional hoping to advance climate change resilience through global aquaculture. My professional network and capstone project are so much stronger for having been able to intern at FAO headquarters, and this was an experience I will carry with me for the rest of my career.
Blog content and images provided by Sophie Tesluk – thank you!