Baltimore Harbor Waterkeeper Internship: Spotlight on Meredith Nishiura

In July 2025, Blue Water Baltimore hosted our first-ever cohort of Baltimore Harbor Waterkeeper interns for a two-week intensive “bootcamp” style immersive learning experience. The opportunity was generously funded by the Chesapeake Bay Trust and the Maryland Department of the Environment under the Healthy Environment, Healthy Communities Grant Program. Hear how the internship helped shape the next generation of Baltimore’s environmental stewards in their own words:

My name is Meredith Nishiura, and I am a senior at St. Mary’s College of Maryland earning my bachelor’s degree in marine science. As an aspiring marine ecology researcher, I’ve learned a lot about science from my many science classes over the years, but I felt that my education was lacking in the other important areas. I came to this internship hoping to learn more about the environmental justice issues in Baltimore City and the different ways people are working to fight them, and I learned even more than I was expecting!

I’ve lived in Baltimore my entire life, but these two weeks have completely changed the way I understand my city—now I know that the water from my load of laundry may eventually backup into someone’s basement even in dry weather, and that as I walk around my neighborhood I may be walking over a buried stream, and that people ship medical waste from hundreds of miles away to Baltimore, just for it to be blown out as smoke over some of our most disadvantaged neighborhoods. Although much of what I’ve learned has been upsetting, I’ve also been incredibly inspired by some of the amazing people and organizations working to help the city, such as our environmental lawyers, community advocates, and local politicians. This internship has been hugely helpful in my journey to become a scientist who can make a difference to our environment and the people who are a part of it.