While many people enter college with an undeclared major, I knew since high school that I wanted to major in marine biology. Coming into Rutgers, I was confident that I wanted to study shark conservation. My first two years here I was dead set on this goal, and looked into work studying fish. My spring of sophomore year I worked with a grad student, helping with her project on black sea bass energetics. This gave me the opportunity for research experience working in a lab. One of the great things about DMCS is that everyone is very friendly and eager to share their research, and it is very common for professors and grad students to be in need of an extra set of undergrad hands to help out in the lab. This makes getting relevant research experience a lot easier than in other fields, which ultimately sets you up for a more successful post-grad life. Junior year, I took the Hydrothermal Vents class with Dr. Richard Lutz, which sparked my interest in deep sea biology and ecology. I ended up graduating with the intent of seeking research opportunities on deep sea invertebrates and fish. The wide variety of electives provided through the marine science department gives students the chance to explore a huge diversity of different subsets of the field, which exposes us to so many opportunities we may not have even known we wanted. Currently, I work as a lab technician at one of the Rutgers off campus labs.
