Eurnett Christopher
U.S. VIRGIN ISLANDS
Long-term Fellow: October 2025 - 2026
Mentored by: Howard Forbes, Jr., Virgin Islands Marine Advisory Service
My interest in marine and environmental science has always been closely tied to home. As a child, I was curious and attentive to the world around me, and family trips to Dominica, the Nature Isle of the Caribbean, helped shape my appreciation for the environment. Some of my earliest and most meaningful memories were also at Coki Point Beach on St. Thomas, where I began noticing changes in the coral reefs I loved. Those experiences helped me understand that I wanted to pursue a career in marine science and contribute to the protection of the places that shaped me.
Through my Navigating Home fellowship, I have served as the Virgin Islands Marine Advisory Service (VIMAS) Education and Community Outreach Assistant, where my work focuses on connecting science with the Virgin Islands community. I help communicate events and projects with schools and organizations across the territory, support public outreach, strengthen VIMAS program materials, and assist with grant writing. I have also worked with long-term program data, including more than 10 years of beach cleanup records, with the goal of helping make environmental information more accessible, useful, and meaningful to the public.
This fellowship has helped me grow both professionally and personally. I have gained experience in outreach, science communication, data organization, grant writing, and community engagement. Attending the Coastal and Estuarine Research Federation Conference also renewed my interest in data analysis and GIS, while connecting me with professionals whose work combines environmental research, geospatial tools, and community impact.
In my fellowship I engaged students and their parents at the Junior Ocean Explorers Summer Program Exposè. The Junior Ocean Explorers Summer Program is a two-week interactive program that focuses on marine science education to bolster local participation and interest in the geosciences. At the end of the program, parents were invited to the JOE Open House to view their child’s creations and projects. This picture shows a student demonstrating robotic control from the robotics lesson.
I assisted a Junior Ocean Explorer during the Swim Skills Assessment through a makeshift obstacle course.
Presentations to educators and the community are an important part of my fellowship.
For me, this work is important because research alone is not enough. In the Virgin Islands and wider Caribbean, environmental progress depends on community trust, participation, and ownership. Through Navigating Home, I have strengthened my connection to local environmental challenges and to the people working to address them. The fellowship has also encouraged me to continue building my skills while remaining connected to the Virgin Islands and contributing to work that supports our communities and environment.