Meet Ocean Explorer Hayley Peczon

OET proudly welcomes Hayley Peczon to the Corps of Exploration as part of the Science & Engineering Internship Program. This internship program supports community college, undergraduate, and graduate students in building professional workforce experience and exploring STEAM-related careers that connect to research themes like robotics, ocean science, education, and exploration. Haley is joining E/V Nautilus for our NA179 expedition as an ROV engineering intern.

We sat with Hayley to learn more about their experience at sea and the path that led them to Nautilus.

Describe your role with OET.

Hi there! I am currently the ROV Engineering Intern on expedition NA179 aboard the E/V Nautilus exploring the Mariana Islands. Learning from our amazing ROV team, I’ll be maintaining and operating our ROVs, Hercules and Little Hercules, for use in mapping and observing the uncharted depths of our oceans! During this expedition, I’ll mostly be copilot, controlling the tow sled Atalanta alongside the pilots of Hercules and Little Hercules. Before and after each dive, we follow a rigorous checklist to ensure our ROVs function as intended. Remotely Operated Vehicles, or ROVs, play a key role in deep-sea exploration, and I feel incredibly honored to be part of this mission and excited to gain hands-on experience in the field!

Can you tell us a little about your background?

My background is in Robotics Engineering, which is what I majored in at the University of California, Santa Cruz. I graduated with my B.S. back in 2024, where I built an electromechanical propeller guard for Clearbot’s autonomous marine debris collection robot as my senior capstone. I’ve always had a deep connection with the ocean, which drives my desire to bridge the gap between robotics and marine conservation.

What influenced you as a child?

Born and raised in sunny Southern California, I feel incredibly blessed and privileged to have been around the ocean my whole life. Especially with my Filipino heritage, we would always make trips back home to visit family in the Philippines and I’d have the chance to reconnect with my ancestral waters too. My parents and grandparents have played an enormous role throughout my life, supporting my interests in any way they can. I want to thank my mom and dad, as well as my Lolo and Lola for all of their love and light that have guided me to where I am today. I feel so lucky, blessed, and thankful to be a child of the Peczon family. Sending much love from abroad!

When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?

For as long as I can remember, being an engineer was the only career I ever seriously considered. I was really into sci-fi as a kid, inspired by movies like Star Wars, Star Trek, and anything Marvel/DC.  When I was little, I loved getting creative with TinkerToys, conducting chaotic science experiments in the kitchen, and taking things apart to figure out how they worked. I actually remember asking my parents if I could be a "professional inventor" when I grew up, and they laughed and said, "Honey, that’s an engineer."

Luckily, my parents supported my curiosity in any way they could, though it was a bit of trial and error. My mom bought me my first microscope thinking I might fall in love with biology, but I took one look at a clump of cells, realized I had trypophobia, and said a swift "nope" to that!

I wanted to build things instead. In the fifth grade, our class learned about NASA’s Mars rovers and rockets. We all wrote letters to NASA suggesting inventions for their missions, and after that, I briefly wanted to be an astronaut. Looking back, it’s pretty amazing that my childhood love for "inventions" and rovers eventually brought me to the ocean floor as an ROV intern!

What would you consider to be your greatest challenge entering this field?

I found the biggest challenge to be just getting your foot in the door. It’s really rough these days because what I found trying to enter this industry was that a lot of roles require prior experience outside of the classroom, but many internships only accept active students. If you don't realize how crucial that timeline is while you're in school, you can easily find yourself graduating, sitting on your hands, and hoping a program will still take a chance on you. I felt incredibly blessed to get into the STEMSEAS program last year; having that under my belt was the catalyst that helped me break through and land this internship.

But beyond the logistics, a huge part of the struggle has been inside my own head. It’s scary to face so much unknown and not have one single, clear cut pathway to getting into this field of work. Because the field is so diverse and the paths aren't linear, navigating that mental anxiety about the future has been just as challenging as building the resume itself. Reaching the Nautilus makes all that uncertainty worth it. 

Do you have any advice for someone looking to follow a similar path?

My best advice is to never give up on yourself! To cheer yourself on like you cheer on others and keep building that path to where you want to go. Also, I believe that fueling your passions is never a waste. 

What's next for your ocean studies and career?  

I want to continue gaining experience in this field! Preferably by doing more work like this aboard research vessels, maintaining and servicing ROVs either on land or in the water, getting my hands on any projects that benefit the future of our planet and her waters! Eventually, I hope to pursue graduate school to further my understanding of the technology that allows us to explore and protect our oceans :)