Seated (from left to right): Deidranee Abeyta, Faith Pellegrino. Standing: Jessi Ann Crocker11th graders Deidranee Abeyta, Jessi Ann Crocker, and Faith Pellegrino are engaged in a paid internship for the spring semester monitoring air quality in Grant County. This internship is offered by Allyson Siwik at the Gila Resources Information Project (GRIP) in collaboration with NM-INSPIRES Community Engagement Core (University of New Mexico). They installed their first air quality monitoring stations on Friday, February 16 and look forward to installing more throughout the county.

The air quality interns work on local environmental health projects, including the setup and maintenance of air quality monitors in the Silver City and Grant County area, and environment, science, and community outreach. After their initial training and the installation of air quality monitors, the interns are responsible for analyzing their data and community outreach via social media, publications, and in-person community events such as Earth Day.

Deidranee Abeyta says, “I hope working with GC AIRWISE will expand my knowledge on the concepts of collecting, analyzing, and communicating the data.” She is most excited about informing the community of their findings.