OCEAN SPRINGS, Miss. - Five students from Tuskegee University in Alabama are getting a summer-working and educational opportunity with scientists here at the University of Southern Mississippi’s Marine Education Center. “We’re working together to explore the sea floor,” Jessie Kastler said. But a bigger purpose is to plant seeds that will diversify the ocean science workforce. “Minority students seeing other minority students doing this, they might start to say, ‘Maybe I should think about this as an option,’” said Richard Whittington. Part of the new generation of ocean scientists may include Elijah Logan, who helped map the sea floor during a trip to the Johnston Atoll in the North Pacific Ocean. (Johnston Atoll is a deserted 3,200-acre atoll in the North Pacific Ocean, located about 860 miles SW of the island of HawaiĘ»i.) The interns will present their work to their peers and mentors this week to complete the summer program. (Source: WLOX 08/04/22) Tuskegee is one of eight HBCUs in the state of Alabama.