“Being able to work at the Georgia Aquarium, where their main mission is to raise awareness and preserve the ocean and its animals, is truly unbelievable,” Logan said. “Every day, I pinch myself when I walk into work.” 

As the dive operations intern, Logan is responsible for performing several tasks associated with the dive program. There are three main groups that she works with: the volunteer divers, members of the dive immersion program and the Georgia Aquarium dive maintenance team. 

The volunteers help with the daily maintenance of different habitats in the aquarium, fill the dive cylinders with air, and help maintain the dive lockers. Logan said it has been great to pick their brains about diving.

“They are so knowledgeable, and they all come from different backgrounds,” Logan said. “A lot of them have been diving there for years, and they've been some of my mentors. It's been great learning from them and getting their perspectives.” 

The dive immersion program divers are those who lead guests on experiences like the Journey with Gentle Giants dive, which, according to the Georgia Aquarium website, is the only opportunity in the world where guests are guaranteed to dive with whale sharks, manta rays and thousands of other fish.

Logan said these divers are some of the most elite divers she has ever met. 

“They are incredible. They are so knowledgeable, and they hold their teams, the public safety and the animal safety to such a high standard. You can tell the safety of the people and the animals are of the utmost importance to everyone here,” Logan said. “They are very respectable and tough as nails while being some of the friendliest people on the earth. I've never seen one without a smile on their face.” 

Lastly, there is the dive maintenance team, a group of individuals responsible for maintaining the cleanliness and overall wellbeing of the habitats for many of the aquarium’s mammals and larger fish. They also service the equipment, and Logan said she is getting a great hands-on learning experience about how to properly maintain dive equipment. 

Without her time at UD, and especially without the UD scuba program, Logan said she doesn’t think that this dream would have become a reality. 

Michael Birns, diving safety officer and scuba instructor at UD, has been a big supporter of Logan since she got involved with the scuba program. Birns said his colleague Jonathan Langham, the diving safety officer at the Georgia Aquarium, told him that Logan earned one of only two available spots out of hundreds of applications. 

"The most rewarding part of my job is seeing my students succeed and excel, and Kelly has made me extremely proud,” Birns said. “She excelled in Marine Studies 410 (MAST410), which gives students the training and skills to work as professional underwater researchers. As the dive operations intern at the Georgia Aquarium, Kelly is taking her scuba training to an even higher level. She'll be bringing her new skills home to join our team in the CEOE dive locker this fall. Kelly is representing us well and opening the door for future collaborations between UD and the Georgia Aquarium."

Logan, who recently re-started the club scuba program at UD, said being at the Georgia Aquarium has opened her eyes to how scuba can benefit a broad range of students and majors — something Logan is hoping to bring back with her when she returns to the University. 

“I have the University and Captain Birns to thank for getting me here,” she said. “I really do hope that scuba becomes a bigger program at the University of Delaware, because at the Georgia Aquarium, the skill is being utilized in all these different ways. I hope to bring that back to UD and tell people, ‘Oh, you're a business major? This is how we can use scuba in your field,’ and just build a multidisciplinary scuba network.”