Special Report: Internship to Employment at AltaSea
Two of the students participating in AltaSea’s most recent internship cohort have accepted job offers from the AltaSea tenant business at which they were interning, bringing this year’s total number of students whose AltaSea internships have led directly to employment to four.
Janet Parga, AltaSea’s workforce development manager, confirmed that both students interned for, and have now been hired by, Holdfast Aquaculture—one of AltaSea’s flagship sustainable aquaculture tenants. Earlier this year, Equatic—an AltaSea tenant deploying marine carbon dioxide removal technology—also hired two interns.
Both of the students hired by Holdfast came to AltaSea through Santa Monica College’s Aquaculture Certificate Program, the flagship offering of California Community Colleges’ Blue Economy and Climate Action Pathways (BECAP) initiative. BECAP is an education-to-career pathways program pioneered by Santa Monica College, AltaSea, and the Los Angeles Economic Development Corporation. With plans to reach fifteen community colleges in LA County, BECAP is trailblazing blue economy workforce development in Los Angeles.
“I think it’s really inspiring to see our interns hired [by] their host, because it’s proof that the BECAP program works,” Parga said.
“[The students] learned about aquaculture and husbandry in class, and were able to apply it in their internship. It’s easier to hire someone who has demonstrated capabilities to perform the job and dedication to the mission.”
Like these students, Parga also came to AltaSea through a work-experience-to-career pathways program, California’s College Corps Fellows. College Corps financially sponsors low-income students to complete a year-long job placement at community-based organizations, helping participants fund their studies while gaining valuable work experience.
AltaSea offered Parga a fulltime job after her fellowship ended, and now she oversees AltaSea’s internship program. Since she started her fulltime role at AltaSea in June 2024, AltaSea and its tenants have hosted 76 paid internships. Parga’s goal is to expand the internship program to at least 60 participants a year, and increase the number of interns who are ultimately hired as staff. 2025 was the most successful year yet for AltaSea’s internship program, and we look forward to the program’s continued success in the new year.
Written by Emily Vidovich. Emily is an environmental journalist specializing in ocean conservation and climate change mitigation. She obtained her bachelor’s degree at George Washington University and a Masters in Global Environmental Studies at a university in Tokyo, Japan. Born and raised in the Port of Los Angeles, she now works in research and communications at AltaSea.