Welcome Ngodoo Atume!

Ngodoo Atume is joining us the Ipswich River team as an intern from Tufts University where she is part of the Sustainable Water Management program.

My name is Ngodoo Atume. I excited to intern at Ipswich River Watershed Association for the summer of 2020.  While Covid-19 posed so many limitations to internships this summer, I am happy that I can work and gain experience from water professionals. I have always been interested in understanding water and its vastness, I grew up near a stream and I remember going there to play with my siblings all the time. I am also that person in the family that is always lecturing everyone about water conservation and environmental sustainability.

I have a bachelor’s degree in Water Resources and Environmental Engineering, going through the engineering route was important for me because it gave me a holistic understanding of the technical aspect of water and the necessity to have hydraulic structures in place. I was also able to understand better the importance of water availability and water conveyance to people.

At the end of 2018, having gained about three years work experience in the environmental field, I decided to go back to school to learn more about water. I had questions around water quality, watersheds and management strategies, water availability and water laws. I have spent the last year at the Sustainable Water Management program at Tufts University and I have gained a lot of knowledge and theoretical insight into these aspects of water. I am very happy to end my program with this experience at Ipswich River Watershed Association, and I am looking forward to learning about water quality and gaining hands on experience.

My tasks for the summer include transforming and uploading water quality data to the EPA Water Quality Exchange portal. Data ranging from dissolved oxygen, temperature to conductivity and so much more. This internship will give me a full grasp on how to manage water quality data and a broader view of how this data is collected and answer the question of why it is collected. Most of my work will be working with water quality data collected from different stations in the watershed. I am excited to work on this data and analyze and transform it. I also want to gain a holistic understanding of the work being done at Ipswich River. I am excited about visiting the river and learn about all of the Ipswich River staff’s work.

My short-term career goals after graduate school is to continue as a water professional and work for organizations striving to ensure sustainability of our water resources. While my long-term goals is establish myself and start up a nonprofit that will focus on providing safe drinking water to people around the world with a focus on women and children.