Greece Sea Turtle Conservation Short Term Internship

I’m a second-year student at Bournemouth university, during my time here I have to do a placement for 10 weeks over first and second year. I decided to take my time abroad and look into conservation and the ways that different conservation issues are affecting the lives of different endangered animals. I decided to take my travels to Greece in hope of working with the endangered loggerhead sea turtle. On the day I arrived I was welcomed by three of the GVI staff. It was a warm and friendly welcome making me feel part of the GVI family as soon as I landed. I went to find the rest of the volunteers and interns and met a few of the people I would be spending the next six weeks with. Once we arrived in camp we told where our tents were and our routine for the next day, although I was nervous, I was extremely excited and everyone showed me exactly what we had to do. We were told about the different surveys we would be helping on such as: • Morning survey o Nest o Relocation o Predation o Wash o Inundation • Night survey • Hatchlings on morning survey • Data base • Shading • Nest check • Excavation Every survey I was on was a completely different experience and you never knew what you were going to find, one of my favourite memories was walking down the beach when one of the other volunteers shouted “ HATCHLINGS”, 12 tiny hatchlings, the size of matchboxes, were moving towards the sea! We had to shade them and make sure they got to sea! Watching them swim off and knowing that they had made it was fantastic!!! The range of different people that I shared my Greek experience with means I now know people from all over the world who are as passionate about conservation as I am, and I have made friends for life. It was an amazing experience which I never wanted to end and would recommend to anyone interested in this area. Thank you my GVI family. I had a truly amazing 6 weeks living in a tent on a beach in Greece, learning so much about myself and the wonderful world around me.

Honestly one of the best two weeks I've had. It was such a rewarding experience working to protect the hatchlings and clean the beaches, and the friends I've made will be lifelong. The leaders at Giannitsochori were kind, welcoming, funny and inspirational, and I'd definitely do it again. Loved it and miss it already.

My GVI experience has been amazing! The staff were incredible! They made me feel welcome when I came and helped me through everything I needed and wanted! They helped arrange things so that we were happy on surveys and spent time with us during the day building relationships! I wouldn't change anything in my experiences at all and want to thanks them for everything they helped me through! The volunteering and internship were amazing! My mentor helped me whenever I was stuck and also helped me through more struggles than just the internship! He would talk to me if I was down or homesick and made my experiences better! The beaches were beautiful and the people I've met here will be my friends forever! I will 100% do another GVI project and hope to expand my GVI family!