Our seasonal teen program, TIDES (Teens Interested In and Dedicated to Environmental Stewardship) provides hands-on community service experience, focused on ecology, conservation, and sustainability projects in Brooklyn Bridge Park. Sophia Lande and Neveah Bonilla, who participated in the TIDES program as stewards, apprentices, and eventually interns (the highest level in the program) between 2023 and 2025, share their experience. Sophia and Neveah are freshmen at Stanford and John Jay College of Criminal Justice, respectively, and felt inspired by TIDES to pursue majors in science-related fields.
How did you hear about TIDES?
Sophia: I found out about TIDES because I did a community day with my high school; we volunteered at Brooklyn Bridge Park. After that, I went on the website, learned about TIDES, and applied.
Neveah: I heard about it from one of my neighbors, who has mutual friends with Haley [McLanahan, Community Science Manager, who runs the TIDES program].
What did you enjoy most about the program?
Sophia: What I enjoyed most was being able to see the backend of how the events run, and helping assist with that, and connecting people to their environment. I also really enjoyed working in the Environmental Education Center, and being able to talk firsthand with families all the time. That was fun!
Neveah: There was always something new. I feel like a lot of the experiences I do have come from [TIDES] – like I caught my first fish through TIDES. So that’s always a highlight that I like to tell people!
What was your favorite session?
Sophia: I think my favorite activity was when we did the water quality monitoring and the plankton sampling every week – it was fun to just be able to look at a little plankton down the microscope and identify the harmful species. I’m very passionate about environmental science, so that was right up my alley, to be able to see all this in practice in the Park.
Neveah: My favorite session would be seining – I liked going into the East River … but also seeing what animals come up [in the net] because a lot of people think that the East River is empty, so it’s always nice when we do community seining and other people get to see that it’s not empty.
What was it like to work with the Park’s leadership?
Sophia: It was very fun and educational. Going from the lower level TIDES, where you’re kind of participating in all the programs from the front end, to then being able to eventually do the internship where you’re helping put on the events with the staff and everything, it really showed me all the work that goes on to put on these events and programs for people and all the skills you need to develop to do it all effectively.
Neveah: I feel like [working with Park leadership] got me a little bit out of my comfort zone. I’m usually more quiet, and I don’t like talking to people, mostly because I don’t know what to say. But I feel like when I was in a leadership role, it was kind of like I had to ask those questions, or I had to answer questions that people had.
What did you learn about the environment and sustainability?
Sophia: One thing I learned the most was how to teach people about the environment, and how to engage people in the environment. Then through all the activity that, especially earlier on in TIDES, learning about the sustainable architecture of the Park really opened my eyes to all these intentional choices that Park leadership has made [to keep it sustainable] … Once you’ve learned about it, you can see all around you and see how this is really like a beautiful, interconnected ecosystem.
Neveah: I learned that there’s solutions towards everything, it just takes a little bit of trial and error … a lot of the details [of the Park] are through sustainability, and I found that interesting. I always thought that they just bought the benches from somewhere, but it’s actually wood that’s from trees that are native to the Park. So I like how they take everything into consideration when it comes to sustainability.
If someone was interested in applying to TIDES and wanted advice, what would you tell them?
Sophia: It’s an amazing experience, and I learned so much during every single year I did. The program really made me feel more connected to the community, and to the Park, and taught me more about my interest in environmental science – which is now my major. I definitely encourage everyone to apply, and don’t be too worried about the application, because it’s just going to be a great time.
Neveah: Go to it with a happy mindset … I went for volunteer hours just because [I wanted to], and I think when you go there with a mindset for “just because,” it winds up being a lot more fun, because it’s like something that you wind up looking towards.
How did this program help you decide what you want to do in the future?
Sophia: I was always interested in environmental science, and that’s why I applied in the first place – I was looking for a way to pursue that outside of the classroom. Being able to spend a lot of my time outdoors in the Park and gain experience in environmental science and how people incorporate that into their careers and what those careers look like continue to fuel my interest.
Neveah: It made me more open to the idea of being in a lab setting. They got me in the habit of monitoring things and looking for new results. Like, we had an eel mop in the River, and it was pretty fun. We’d go every week and see if anything new happened.
What was your experience working with the other interns and are you still in touch?
Sophia: Yeah, it was really fun to meet all these people from around the city that I probably wouldn’t have met otherwise. I’m still in touch with some of the people I met during the program.
Neveah: I do talk to one of them – we started in the same volunteer cohort, and then we ended up being interns together during the spring!
TIDES sessions run into the spring, summer, and fall. Learn more about the upcoming semester on our Teen Programs page!
