Olivia Stone helps protect sea turtles

Caring for animals of all kinds is a passion for Olivia Stone ’25.

“I always had animals as a source of comfort to get me through hard times,” said Stone. “I really want to give back to them, even if it’s not my own animals. Animals help people get through daily hardships and give them so many good times. They are a huge part of people’s families.”

This summer, Stone worked as an intern for the Ocean Isle Beach Sea Turtle Protection Organization.

Stone and her family have lived at Ocean Isle Beach for three years, and she knew immediately she wanted to get involved with the organization.

“I’ve always loved sea turtles and found them fascinating,” said Stone. “My mom has been following the Facebook page for a few years since we moved. She’s always been following where the new nests are and when they’re hatching. She saw this organization and internship and sent it to me.”

Every Wednesday at 5 a.m., Stone and another volunteer walked the beach looking for turtle tracks or nests. If they found one, another team came to locate the egg chamber and place a protective covering over the nest to ensure other animals or people didn’t harm it.

“I loved doing something not everybody’s able to do. I watched sea turtles laying their nests, dig, hatch and go towards the water. A lot of people don’t get to experience that,” said Stone. “All sea turtle species are endangered, so a lot of protection organizations pop up around the coast because we want to help get the numbers back up for their species. It’s so cool that I was able to give back to the environment.”

The interns typically locate about five nests per week, or 40 nests per summer, finding lots of nests in late July and early August. They mostly see loggerhead sea turtles, but they did spot one Kemp’s ridley sea turtle — the rarest and most endangered sea turtle species — this year. Most turtles lay and hatch their eggs in the night, but the Kemp’s ridley lays and hatches them in the day.

On Monday afternoons, the organization hosts a “turtle talk” and invites people from the community to learn about sea turtles and what the organization does. About a hundred people come each week to learn about turtles and get an update on how many nests there are.

When she isn’t helping sea turtles, Stone works as a veterinary technician assistant at Ocean Isle Veterinary Hospital. She helps out by doing laundry, restocking syringes and equipment, giving animals medications and intubations, trimming nails and helping with routine visits.

Stone wants to be a veterinarian, so she enjoys seeing what her work life will be like. “Being able to help animals is so important to me because I know animals are such a big part of people’s lives. Helping other people with their companions can mean a lot because you never know what someone is going through and how animals are helping them. I know they’ve helped me. It’s awesome to know I’m helping somebody by helping their pet,” said Stone.

Carolina prepared Stone for these veterinary opportunities and for what lies ahead by taking classes like marine biology, microbiology and animal behavior.

“At Carolina, I knew I was in a community where they would support me,” said Stone. “With my teachers, if there was something I was interested in, they’d point me in the right direction to different opportunities. My friends would push me to be more well rounded and explore different paths.”