Jan-Alexis Barry
U.S. VIRGIN ISLANDS
Short-term Fellow: April - July 2026
Mentored by: Dr. Marilyn Brandt, University of the Virgin Islands
I earned my Master's degree at the University of the Virgin Islands in 2020. In the years following, I did whatever work I could find to make ends meet spearfishing, cleaning the bottoms of boats, painting houses, data entry and packing at the Department of Labor, odd jobs here and there. What drew me to Navigating Home was the chance to get back into science and research, to learn new things, and to find out if I still had the same passion for marine biology.
I worked in the UVI coral nursery under Dr. Marilyn Brandt at the Coral Research Lab, maintaining the tanks and keeping the corals healthy through algae removal, medicinal dips, micro-fragmenting, and general husbandry. As part of my work I mentored interns, helped with outreach for visiting groups, and got into the field diving to rescue corals and outplant them to our in-water nurseries at Flat Cay and Range Cay.
The fellowship was't structured around constant one-on-one time with my mentor, so most days were spent with the students and staff of the lab. But when Dr. Brandt and I did work together, it made a real difference. She was supportive, open to ideas, and even helped me with my resume and connected me professional contacts.
There was one moment that really stood out for me. We were out at Flat Cay outplanting baby corals, and I looked up at the Elkhorn coral tree and saw a branch hanging there, polyps out, thriving. Under that deep blue water, that orange-brown branch was one of the most beautiful things I'd ever seen. It brought a tear to my eye underwater. I remember thinking, we're doing some really great and very important work. This is everything. That moment still lives in my head.
The fellowship changed how I see corals entirely, and it confirmed that marine biology and research is still where I want to build a career. For now, I'm staying right here. The Brandt Lab extended my employment, and I'm grateful for that. This means steady income, more time to learn, and the chance to learn things I didn't get to during the first round. There's even talk of this becoming a permanent position. My next steps are simple: keep learning, keep meeting people, and keep working toward a solid career in this field.
Opportunities like Navigating Home matter because they give people like me real work experience and real networking. We get to have the chance to learn what's happening in our own backyard that we might never have known about otherwise, and access to conferences, mentors, and methods that would otherwise be out of reach.
Corals in the on-land nursery need daily care from cleaning to feeding and water monitoring.
In this picture I’m preparing a frame for one of the in-water nurseries. Baby corals are attached to these frames until they grow large enough to be outplanted onto a reef.