University of Central Florida senior Kye Pollard will be turning the tassel to graduate this month with a bachelor’s degree in biology. But Pollard, 22, a native of Avon Park, Fla., and a current Orlando resident, also will enter the work force with hands-on background in marine biology as a student-intern at Marine Discovery Center.
Get to know Kye, who talks with staff writer Lisa D. Mickey, about the value of his internship experience at MDC:
You are getting ready to graduate. What is your future career goal?
Before coming to MDC, my original plan was to stay in school at UCF to get my master’s degree, but after coming here last September [2025] and talking with everybody at MDC, I have decided I need more experience in conservation and restoration. As I have gained more experience, I have thought a lot about what I actually want to do? I definitely am inspired to keep working in the lagoon or in Canaveral National Seashore for a while.
Are you applying for jobs now?
I was going to apply for technician jobs around the area, but I actually got accepted for a job with CEELAB [Coastal and Estuarine Ecology Lab] at UCF with Dr. Linda Walters’ team. I will still be doing technician work, but I’ll also help deploy restoration materials out into the mosquito lagoon. Part of the reason why I got the job is because I connected with so many people at MDC and Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC). It’s like they see that I know what I’m doing and are happy to have me on board.
When did you start your internship at MDC?
I started in September 2025. I was originally the “plant intern” here. I would help out a lot with repotting Spartina grass and red mangrove seedlings to allow them to spread their roots better. I also helped clean and maintain the seagrass tanks. The tanks can get kind of overrun with algae growing on the seagrass blades, so, I would go there every day, record the salinity and the temperature of the tanks, and clean those grass blades throughout the tanks. I found some crabs a few times that did not enjoy my hands digging down there!
Are you still doing that at MDC or other things now?
I’m actually helping with a lot of different things. I’m still working with the tanks, but I’m also helping with the horseshoe crabs and the trail-cam photos, swapping out the [memory] cards on the cameras at Canaveral National Seashore and doing surveys with the horseshoe crab teams. I’ve also been getting involved with MDC exhibits — cleaning the exhibit tanks, doing the tank water changes and water-quality tests.
How has this internship at MDC benefitted you?
They have really let me get a taste of everything. Obviously, I‘m getting experience using tools, doing tank maintenance and tank plumbing. But honestly, the biggest thing I attribute to MDC is opening my eyes to what the ecosystem actually is — at least in coastal Florida with the lagoon. I grew up in Avon Park and there are orange trees there, but not coastal marine species. I started learning about the lagoon and the coast in marine biology classes at UCF, but this is the first time that I’ve been able to actually see the lagoon and the coast, and to work with and observe the animals and different species there. In a current class at UCF, we have studied oyster reefs and mangroves, so it coincides with the things I’m doing at MDC. Because of that, I actually know what I want to work in now.
So, what you’re studying in class at UCF are the things that are actually hands-on at MDC?
Yes, and when my professor started telling us about mangroves and oyster reefs, I was like, “Oh, I know this! I know about Spartina grass.” It’s very gratifying to be able to actually apply the stuff I’m doing here into that class and seeing how technician work here can be applied into research-focused work at school. It has me asking questions like, “How can we work with the community? How can we work with other scientists? How can we present this research to other people?” It’s been very interesting and cool!
Has there been a highlight for you in your internship?
I think just getting involved with the community and spending time together as a researcher or as a student has been important. Sometimes my head is buried in the sand with other like-minded people or peers, so I’m trying to get better at communicating environmental information to people in the community who may not be as involved or they would like to become involved, but don’t have a way to connect. It has given me some peace of my mind for the future thinking about how we can teach people — especially in Florida – more about development and about the risks of taking over certain habitats or land. How can we inform them that what we have right now is beautiful and vital for both us and other species? I think that was my key takeaway at the ShORE Symposium [Sharing Our Research with Everyone] was seeing all kinds of people interested in the environment.
There were many different perspectives in that room at ShORE, yet all were interested in the environment.
Yes, and everybody looks at information in different ways. When I was younger, I thought people just wanted to destroy everything, but as I have gotten older and learned more, I realize that sometimes people just don’t have enough information. They’re not bad people. They just don’t know options. I was explaining to my cousin what I was doing at MDC last semester and he asked, “So, what does seagrass do?” I was almost dumbfounded — like, why doesn’t he know this? But that opened my eyes and helped me understand that I need to be better about connecting different worlds and bridging them together. When it comes to conservation and restoration, we all can be better informed and knowledgeable.
As a young scientist just starting your career this year, how do you feel about trying to make a difference?
I know that it’s one step at a time. I still want to make a big impact, and I want to go forward with a lot of things, but I also know that it’s okay to take my time to learn more and to even look beyond coastal work. I could do more terrestrial work or technician work. Potentially, I want to do more intensive research and work on getting a master’s degree, but right now, I am just excited to learn more.
Congratulations on your winning poster at ShORE. How did you choose your research topic?
The research was about basalt bags used in oyster restoration and what were the effects of fiber-like shards coming from the bags placed on shorelines? The research showed the basalt mesh bags expelled a ton of shards, so we wanted to know if oysters ingested them? Do the shards get stuck in their tissue? We found that they do, but that oysters can expel the shards pretty well. We looked at their tissue and saw that 90 percent of the basalt shards were getting out, but that 10 percent was retained in their tissues. The oysters survived, but we wondered if, over time, they could completely expel the shards or if the birds and humans eating the oysters could be affected? We are hoping for future study on this.
Were you surprised to win first place for your poster?
Honestly, I thought we might place in the top three with one of the posters, but I was not expecting first place. That was awesome and the cash prize was $350. It’s very exciting and strange to actually win a cash prize for our hard work – for science! My dad was pretty amazed.
How has Marine Discovery Center helped prepare you for your next phase of life?
It’s been great working with Sam [Garcia], Julia [Peterson] and Abby [Frey] from MDC’s Conservation team because they’ve been so adamant about me being more confident in what I’m doing. They will help me initially and they will definitely provide help if you ask, but they like for us to be more independent and to do things at our own pace and in our own way. That’s helped me become more confident and aware of what I’m doing. It has helped me to mentally plan how to do things and then to physically put it to the test.
Is there anything that’s a real challenge at MDC?
It’s always the innovation stuff that is challenging. Last year, I did a little project with sea hares in the seagrass tanks. I wanted to see if sea hares could properly maintain seagrass blades instead of us having to constantly clean the grass. It’s interesting to actually create variables and parameters for an experiment and then wonder: “What is my hypothesis? What is my question? How do I set this all up? What am I doing? Is this data accurate?” That is probably the greatest challenge, and I’m doing something similar with that right now with the tanks because we’re going to transform an exhibit tank into a seahorse tank. We don’t want the seahorses to get stuck in the filter area, so we’re trying to create a little barrier for them. Both Julia and Sam have provided me with the materials and some ideas, but pretty much tell me this is my innovation, my creation — which is pretty cool.
What does that mean for you to be given that responsibility?
It’s very nice realizing that they trust me and that they know that I can do something with this. With classes at school, it’s just “do this assignment, take this exam, move on to the next class.” At MDC, it’s like, “We know you’re smart. We know that you can do this. We’ve seen you do it. Now, do it on your own.” They have put their trust and expectation in me. I’ve never had great self-confidence, so coming here and getting this support has meant a lot.
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