RECognition: AJ Clifford, Instructional Classes
Recreation's monthly series to celebrate our staff
By Shawn Cyr
Assistant Marketing Director
Most people’s knowledge of mosquitoes is fairly limited. They have six legs. They can carry various diseases and are a nuisance in large parts of the country during the summer. Their amber was the vehicle that brought the dinosaurs back in the original “Jurassic Park.”
Consider AJ Clifford a bit more knowledgeable. Truth be told, mosquitoes don’t bug him at all.
When he’s not working as a program assistant for Recreation, AJ — who’s finishing up his master's in biology in the fall of 2025 — is usually buzzing around Rose Lab at UCSD, where he studies local adaptation in mosquitoes.
“In my lab, I study Culex mosquitoes, which are native to San Diego and common in the salt marshes and at the edges of urban areas,” AJ says.
His work centers around how the salt concentrations of San Diego marshes (which house the mosquitoes’ larvae) change over time and the impact that has.
“As more communities get built close to these salt marshes, all the freshwater humans use runs off into the marshes — think all the excess water from your lawn, washing your car, even your shower/sink/laundry machine, depending on how that waste water drains,” AJ says. “And these new freshwater introductions might be making the salt marshes a better habitat for these mosquitoes, so we might start seeing their populations grow.”
His affinity for science and the outdoors also bleeds into his role with Recreation. During the academic year, he works as a programming assistant with REC Instructional Classes, helping students and members with questions about class offerings while handling the back-end of registrations. In the summer, though, he channels his inner summer camp counselor at Recreation’s Knock Around Camp, which is hosted on campus for children of staff, faculty, and community members.
“I lead them through exciting activities, like kayaking in Mission Bay, creating and starring in their own feature-length film, and an overnight camping trip,” Clifford says. “Education has always been one of my interests, and the Knock Around program at UCSD is a great way to spend your summer, building new friendships with your co-counselors and working with great kids.”
Ben Brickley, Assistant Director for Rec Classes and Youth Programs, says AJ impressed immediately when he came aboard as a counselor in the summer of 2022. He also called AJ one of the department’s “best and most senior Program Assistants,” noting that he “regularly trains new PAs and helps the admin team run stellar programs for UCSD’s community.”
"His work ethic, leadership skills, and problem-solving abilities quickly identified him as a camp coordinator candidate, and in the summers of 2023 and 2024, he programmed two specialty camps at Knock Around in Robotics and Fantasy/Sci-Fi camps,” Brickley says. “Fast forward to spring 2025, and AJ, or ‘Red’ as he is known at camp, is set to coordinate KA’s most coveted program in Leadership Camp, and will serve as a resource and mentor to camp staff.
It’s a role that AJ relishes, he says. Though this will be AJ’s last with Knock Around Camp — he starts his PhD program next year and would like to be a teacher’s assistant (and eventually) a professor — AJ says being a counselor has created lasting memories he’ll carry with him even long after he leaves La Jolla.
“My most memorable experience with REC was getting to take a group of campers to Birch Aquarium,” he says. “It was awesome to see everyone getting excited about our oceans — and I got to nerd out and explain marine ecosystems!”
After all, he’s a sucker for science.
