Your Internship Experience
You’ll dive into reef restoration work and will have the best time doing it. A BRANCH internship is anything but boring. You get to work with an international team and experience the beauty of Curaçao while helping our reefs and engaging the community. Not one day is the same, thus flexibility is a must.
Your Day-to-Day Tasks
Working with BRANCH is diverse. One moment you are writing a newsletter and crafting a social media post, the next you are creating a coral nursery. You will be doing hands-on reef work: gathering supplies, building nurseries, cleaning them, outplaning coral fragments and tracing their growth, actively learning about coral restoration techniques.
Internship essentials
While being mad about corals helps, there are a few other prerequisites to becoming an intern at BRANCH.
A valid driver’s license
In order to get around Curaçao, a car is indispensable.
Scuba certification
+ buoyancy mastery
+ recent health check
(can be obtained on Curaçao)
A passion for marine life & reef conservation
This is a natural prerequisite for interning with us.
“Branch is a small but highly dedicated team. During my internship, I not only gained valuable practical experience but also truly felt part of the organisation and its mission for nature. It was an inspiring and educational time, thank you.”
Lisa Gerats | Marine Biology Intern
“My time at BRANCH was precious and inspiring. I wish I could have spend more time on the island with the team and also more time under water. I would go back right now if I could.”
Ines Zimmermann | Marketing Intern
“I did a nine-week internship at BRANCH Coral Foundation. I gained a lot of knowledge and experience in coral restoration and also acquired significant diving experience. I was also well supported by Max in completing my personal assignments.”
Storm Henkus | Applied Biology Intern
Our interns
Meet our current (and past) interns
Storm Henkus
Storm Henkus is a 24-year-old Applied Biology student from The Netherlands. Last year, he spent nine months interning in Curaçao, where he fell in love with the island and its coral reefs. He has now returned for another four-month internship to complete his bachelor thesis. His research focuses on the effects of different benthic compositions around the nurseries on the growth of staghorn corals.
Gianni Gambassi
Gianni is a half Kiwi, half Italian Master’s Student, studying Marine Science in France. With an avid dislike for winter and a love for surfing, diving, and all things ocean, he is angling himself well for a career in tropical marine research. While conducting the Brain Coral project, secretly (or very vocally) he is hoping to see sharks.
Jip Veeman
Jip is a marine animal ecology student in the final year of her master’s degree. Currently working with the BRANCH Coral Foundation on the education side, spending the days learning, teaching and getting the next generation passionate about our oceans. With a deep fascination of life underwater, a lot of the time is spent observing how life moves under the surface, diving and swimming around.
Paul van Loon
Paul van Loon is a Coastal Marine Management student at Van Hall Larenstein in Leeuwarden. His research is about the effects of specific environmental conditions on the growth of Acropora cervicornis, the staghorn corals in our nurseries.
Maud Jilesen
Maud Jilesen, 20, studies Environmental Science at HAS University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands. During her internship at BRANCH, she researched coral growth rates and assisted with coral cleaning after earning her diving certification, contributing to BRANCH’s ongoing conservation efforts.
Tessa Breedveld
Tessa Breedveld, 21, studies Communication at HAN University in Nijmegen. This year, she is managing BRANCH’s website, social media, and events, bringing creativity and energy to the team to help share BRANCH’s story..
Noa Jongkees
Noa, 22, studies Landscape & Environment Management in Delft. She is currently interning at BRANCH, researching coral and exploring the different restoration methods applied to support coral recovery and conservation.
Maren van der Vliet
Maren van der Vliet, 21, studies Environmental Science at HAS Green Academy. She is completing a five-month internship at BRANCH Coral Foundation, researching how various factors affect the growth of staghorn coral across the foundation’s seven nurseries.
Ready to join us?
You want to be part of the diverse and international coral restoration team of BRANCH. Then contact us now!
