Mia Harvey is a lead camp counselor for the second year at Marine Discovery Center and also is an intern with MDC’s conservation program. When she’s not guiding children at camp, Mia, 19, can be found tending mangrove trees, seagrasses and Spartina grass in the conservation program’s plant nursery on MDC’s back campus.
Growing up in Orlando, Mia spent weekends in New Smyrna Beach with her family and gained an early appreciation for the coastal ecosystem. Get to know Mia in her recent interview with MDC staff writer Lisa D. Mickey:
Q: Were you born in Orlando?
A: Actually, I was born in China and adopted as a baby by my [American] parents.
Q: How did you become connected with MDC?
A: Either in 2020 or 2021, I came to MDC to earn volunteer hours for the Bright Futures Scholarship program, and then I got hooked because I loved it and I told them, “I’m coming back.” I kept coming back for more weeks, more volunteer hours and during the summer months and for school-holiday camps. In 2024, I started as a lead summer camp counselor and I’m a lead counselor again this summer.
Q: What is your role at summer camp this year?
A: Our No. 1 goal is to make sure the kids are safe and injury-free and then we make sure they have fun and learn something in our hands-on, feet-wet camp environment.
Q: Do you work with a certain age group at camp?
A: This summer, I’m working with the 7 to 9-year-olds — the Leatherbacks. Last year, I worked with kids ages 5 to 7, and 7 to 9.
Q: What do you enjoy about working with children?
A: Knowing that I was returning to MDC and was going to be with the kids kept me motivated through the school year and got me through final exams. I like it because they bring a lot of joy with them. Some days, it can be a lot, but they’re kids and that’s just how it goes.
Q: What’s your best story with kids at camp in the two summers you have been a counselor?
A: I get to come back to camp and see familiar faces. They’re like, “You’re back? Oh, Miss Mia’s back!” I get to see kids grow up. I’ve been coming around here for five or six years and one kid was around age 5 when I first started coming to MDC. Now, he’s almost 9 or 10. It’s also rewarding to hear that kids want to become Lead Counselors when they grow up!
Q: You also have an internship in MDC’s conservation program. What does that entail?
A: For the internship, I clean the seagrass tanks out on our back lot. I plant seagrass fragments and identify and count the seagrass shoots in our tanks. I also work with the mangrove trees — just weeding, checking their water and repotting them if they are outgrowing their containers.
Q: What do you enjoy about the conservation work?
A: It’s nice because after a busy day at camp, it’s kind of therapeutic to go out there by myself. It’s quiet and very different from being around the kids all day.
Q: Are there any challenges?
A: It’s kind of challenging sometimes because I’m really, really tired after a day at camp, but I want to do it. I believe it’s good for me to do that part of my day because it is calming. Instead of going home and just falling asleep, having that little quiet time while doing something productive is all good.
Q: You are working alongside our staff conservation team, who must be supportive of your experience.
A: They are! I do most of my duties by myself because it’s after camp, but I definitely have learned a lot about seagrass and how to differentiate the grasses. The MDC staff is open to helping me with anything and they encourage me to ask questions. I have guidelines, but I also have independence. They trust us to do our work, which is cool.
Q: Are you still a student at Virginia Tech?
A: Yes, I’ll be a college sophomore/junior with credits this fall. I’m studying mechanical engineering. I’m on the degree track for mechanical engineering and automotive engineering, but I’m unsure if I want to be working with cars or working in conservation and helping them build stuff.
Q: When do you have to declare your major?
A: We’ll see. Maybe I would be a little crazy to go for three majors, but I might wait and do that [course work] later.
Q: It’s a big change moving from flat, hot Florida to Blacksburg, Va., nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains.
A: It was so cold that first winter! I had seen snow before when I was maybe 3, but I forgot how cold it was. The first snow in Blacksburg was great, but then after that, I was like “I’m cold, I’m cold, I’m cold!” At least I had a heated vest, which was very, very nice.
Q: Have you always been interested in science and mathematics?
A: I’ve known I wanted to be an engineer since I was in the fifth or sixth grade. I’ve seen my dad work on cars since I was little and I think that’s what got me into it. My dad told me he’d had passions he didn’t pursue and he regretted it. He told me to go for it. Now, I’m sort of torn between my two passions.
Q: So, those passions would be mechanical engineering, automotive engineering and conservation?
A: My school offers a degree in wildlife conservation, so that’s an option. Even with an engineering degree, I could help design, create and build stuff for people in conservation. It might be something biologists have an idea about, but don’t know how to put into full swing. I want to help with that.
Q: You are getting hands-on experience in biology at MDC and you’re getting the engineering in college?
A: Yes, there’s opportunity to learn and get experience in both places.
Q: Where did you go to high school in Orlando?
A: I went to Trinity Preparatory School. I was decently normal in math, and in science, I guess I was accelerated. I took a lot of A.P. [Advanced Placement] classes. I also participated in Science Olympiad and we competed against other schools in the optics category. I didn’t know anything about optics, but they put me in it because I was the physics person on our team.
Q: How did MDC stoke or reinforce your interest in STEM?
A: There’s a lot of cool stuff here at MDC and to back up everything here, you need science. There’s a lot of science here and always things to learn.
Q: Have you had a highlight at MDC?
A: I think my highlight is the community that MDC is. That’s also what keeps me coming back. The community here is so welcoming. It’s not forced or fake. This was definitely a place that made me feel like it was another home.
Q: After you earn your degree, do you plan to return to Florida?
A: Virginia is way too cold for me, so I plan to come back down south – no farther north than South Carolina. I need to be in the warmth.
Q: Are there a lot of women students in your engineering classes?
A: Women are still a minority. It’s interesting in my field because I did a technical elective for mechanical engineering. I was one of three girls in my class and I was one of two freshman in my class last year. I forgot how male-dominated the field is, but I learned that early in middle school because I was involved in robotics and it was mostly boys.
Q: Your generation of women engineers are not the pioneers, but you are still coming along behind those who opened the door for you.
A: Yes, and I’m excited about that.
Q: Any final thoughts about your experiences at MDC?
A: I hear a lot of good things at this camp. Parents tell us they are going to keep sending their kids to camp at MDC because they had so much fun and they were immersed in so many things. Hearing that and feeling like you are doing a good job when you’re not sure if you are or not, is so cool. And the kids will also go home and talk to their parents about what they did at camp. When you see those kids the next year, they will tell you how excited they are to come back to camp.
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