Michael Crowley, a graduate student at the School of Public Policy, has been selected for a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) fellowship program that fast tracks students for leadership roles within the agency.
Crowley, a master of public policy student, is one of 100 students nationwide selected for the Directorate Resource Assistant Fellows Program, a partnership between FWS and the Student Conservation Association created for students who are interested in careers in conservation. Program fellows may be eligible for permanent positions with the FWS after they complete their fellowships and degree programs.
As part of his fellowship, Crowley is working this summer with the FWS Fish and Aquatic Conservation Program, based in the agency鈥檚 Hadley office. Crowley is gathering and digitizing infrastructure data to create online geographic information system maps for several national fish hatcheries, including North Attleboro National Fish Hatchery, Berkshire National Fish Hatchery and Harrison Lake National Fish Hatchery in Virginia.
鈥淭his project is essential because the infrastructure it seeks to map out is critical for supporting the hatcheries鈥 fish propagation mission,鈥 according to the project description. 鈥淭here is not currently a single dynamic resource the hatchery and regional engineering staff can use to see what systems are operational, which increases the risk of inadvertent damage to buried utilities, with potential catastrophic impact to fish on station.鈥