Thomas More, aquarium partner on marine biology program

NEWPORT – An aquatic classroom flowing with more than 7,000 animals and more than 600 species soon will help Thomas More College’s new marine biology students learn up close.

The college is partnering with Newport Aquarium and the nonprofit WAVE foundation to provide hands-on learning and research at the aquarium beginning in the fall.

“It’s the new normal: education, entertainment, business,” said Thomas More College President David A. Armstrong. “We have to collaborate in order to grow our programs.”

Armstrong called the relationship “groundbreaking” in that it uniquely provides a marine biology program that works alongside aquatic animals in a privately owned, open-to-the-public aquarium.

TMC students won’t be the only ones to benefit, according to those who discussed the partnership Wednesday at the aquarium’s Shark Ray Bay theater.

Chris Lorentz, TMC professor of biology and director of the Environmental Science Program and Biology Field Station will also teach an introduction to marine biology dual-credit course for high school students.

He’s done it before with volunteers of the WAVE Foundation, which educates the public about aquatic life and conservation. But by next year, high school students from the region will also be able to take the classes.

The general public will have a shot at learning more through the partnership, too. The WAVE Foundation and Thomas More College are in the planning stages of a lecture series involving national experts in 2015, said Kathy McDonald, executive director of the foundation.

Eric Rose, vice president and executive director of the Newport Aquarium, said the three partners have been long involved with one another, and their new relationship strengthens the college and the aquarium.

“There’s been a rich, ongoing relationship,” Rose said. “We’ve been working on various research projects, various biology programs” for years.

The community also benefits because, Armstrong said, students who may have decided to leave the area for a marine biology degree might stay in the region due to the rich, hands-on experience TMC can offer with the aquarium partnership.

Already, prospective students have been calling TMC about the marine biology program, according to the college’s officials. One was considering a move to Florida but has decided to go to TMC instead.

Rose said the mutual benefit of the partnership also reaches to the Northern Kentucky community in that the aquarium and TMC will develop research that benefits both, as well as scientists and institutions in the nation and beyond.⬛