From Classroom to Seafloor: Texas Southern Student Joins National Ocean Exploration Mission
By Texas Southern is making waves—literally. Swazi Gurnell, a student from Texas Southern, has been selected to join the Corps of Exploration through the Ocean Exploration Trust’s prestigious Science and Engineering Internship Program. As part of the NA172 expedition, Swazi will serve as a video engineering intern aboard the E/V Nautilus, supporting deep-sea missions that contribute to global scientific discovery.
This opportunity places Swazi at the heart of live ocean exploration. He’ll help manage and deliver real-time video footage from remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) surveying the seafloor, ensuring that researchers, and the public, can witness discoveries as they unfold thousands of feet below the ocean’s surface.
But this story goes far deeper than the mission itself. Swazi’s selection is part of a broader, national push to expand access to high-impact STEM opportunities, especially in fields like marine science and deep-ocean engineering, where Black professionals remain historically underrepresented. The Ocean Exploration Trust, alongside federal agencies like NOAA and the National Science Foundation, has been working to create more equitable pipelines into exploratory science. Swazi’s presence on board represents progress in real time, and signals that Texas Southern students are not just participants, but leaders in this movement.
As a proud representative of Texas Southern, Swazi stands among a small but growing number of HBCU students entering the global stage of science and engineering through experiential, mission-based learning. His journey, from classroom to deep-ocean vessel, exemplifies the value of real-world research experiences and highlights the university’s increasing footprint in STEM innovation.
Explore more about Swazi’s background and perspective in the Q&A blog from the Science and Engineering Internship Program.
