Advice To Other First Generation College Students

What’s a whale fall?

Whale falls can be found throughout the ocean. This one was spotted in Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary, off the coast of Southern California!

GIF transcript beneath the cut.

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Every once in a while, sanctuary researchers get a treat – like getting to see this tiny baby octopus! 🐙 . 

Each summer, researchers conduct expeditions in our West Coast sanctuaries as part of the ACCESS conservation partnership. Researchers get to see creatures big and small when conducting surveys in places like Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary!

FROM PANAMA TO MARIANA TRENCH:  FEMALE WHALE SHARK MADE A RECORD!

For two and a half years, scientists followed the movements of Anne, a whale shark, during which she swam from the coast of Central America to the Mariana Trench.

In 2011, researchers put a transmitter on Anne near Coiba Island in Panama. In the following 841 days, Anne’s transmitter sent a signal to the ARGOS satellite when it swam close to the surface. These trasmitter allowed the team to follow its movements to the south to the Galapagos Islands and throughout the Pacific to the Mariana Trench, to the south of Japan and the east of the Philippines. She traveled a distance of 20142 kilometers.

-Whale shark route from Panama to the Mariana Islands (black track) tagged in September 2011, and old record from Mexico to the Marshall Islands (red track, tagged in September 1995).

The finding reinforces the position of the whale shark as one of the animals that travels most, along with leatherback turtle, gray whale and the arctic tern. In 2016, the IUCN cataloged the species for the first time as threatened. Biologists calculate that tropical and subtropical seas have less than half of whale sharks that they had 75 years ago, which increases the urgency of their protection.

Read also: This is why whale shark aggregate just in 20 sites!

Photo: A whale shark at Gladden Spit, Belize. Source Heyman et al.,2001. 

Reference (Open Access): Guzman et al., 2018.  Longest recorded trans-Pacific migration of a whale shark (Rhincodon typus). Marine Records

Daily Life

Weekdays

Weekends

Buses

Food

Daily life here in Costa Rica, at least for me, is not necessarily all that different or much more exciting than daily life in the U.S. The major difference is since my workload is a lot lighter here, I have a lot more free time.

A typical week may play out like this. Every day, I usually get up between 7:30-8:00 am. Even on weekends when I don’t have plans, my body is used to waking up early and I usually never sleep to my alarm. This may be because the sun is always up my 6:00 am and my internal body clock has just adjusted to this. On Monday, I don't have class until 1 pm, but I usually don't get home until 7:30-8:00 pm, which makes Monday my busiest day. I usually spend the first half of the day doing random stuff, unless I have something I need to prepare for a class, such as an exam or presentation. On Tuesday, I have class at 10:00 am until 11:40 am, and I have a break to go back home and eat lunch before I have my other class at 3:00 pm, which usually is a little under two hours.  

By Tuesday night, I usually pretty tired (since Monday is always a long day) and I don't do too much since I have no class on Wednesday. This makes Wednesday a day to relax or get a head start on work for Thursday and Friday. Occasionally, I have gone on day trips. For example, one week I went somewhere with my host mom for the day and last week, I went to San José to visit two museums. The rest of my week is really easy class wise, with only one class Thursday and Friday, with both starting at 10:00 am.  

On weekends, I've gone on quite a few trips, some sponsored by IFSA and some as a part of a class. Otherwise, I may go a few places with my host parents, do watch, or watch a few things on Netflix.  

In order to get around, I usually take the bus. I live in Barva and la Universidad Nacional is in Heredia, so I always need to take the bus to get to and from class. One round trip costs about $0.35, and it can take anywhere from 10-30 minutes for the bus to get from Barva to Heredia or vice versa, but it usually takes about 15-20 minutes. Other buses, to San José for example, cost a bit more, but still under $1 one way usually unless it's a few hour trip. That being said, if you plan out which buses you need to take, it is pretty easy to get around, even if you're used to having a car like me.

With my host family, breakfast usually consists of eggs a mix of rice and beans called gallo pinto. We usually have freshly-squeezed orange juice as well, and my host parents also drink coffee. We sometimes have cereal or an egg sandwich too. Lunch and dinner are usually pretty similar, and almost always include rice and beans (a staple in Costa Rica). Sometimes my host mom needs to make food that's a little bit different for me because I'm a vegetarian. We almost always have either some type of fruit juice, usually made of cas, but sometimes mango, pineapple, or watermelon, or iced tea. I usually like everything my host mom makes. I don't have to do any of my own laundry, which is very different from college in the U.S. If my host mom does not do it, the maid that comes on Mondays and Fridays comes.

(Feb 6, 2016) Photos from Volcano Irazú in Costa Rica.

Goals

Schedule

Senior year

Grad School

Job

The main topic of this post is my professional goals, but before I get to that, I want to address short term goals, and how my study abroad experience is affecting them. If anyone is reading this and is considering going abroad but is waiting for the best time, stop it. There will never be a perfect time to go abroad.  

When I was trying to decide when I would go abroad, I wanted to pick a semester would not dramatically impact affect my biology major and a semester where I would have taken enough Spanish classes to feel ready. And from the beginning I decided to wait until my Junior Year. Fast forward to now and there are more biology classes offered this semester than last semester, and I don't think an extra semester of Spanish has made much of a difference in my speaking capabilities. There are other things at Susquehanna that I am missing this semester.

BUT going abroad will always throw a wrench in your schedule. It's impossible to choose a perfect time, because you will miss something (a class, an event, a holiday, etc...). But don't let that discourage you from going abroad because the experience will be worth it. Just keep in mind what you are gaining outweighs any scheduling conflicts.  

My shortest term goals after this semester ends is having a successful Senior Year, since all of my goals after college depend on this. This includes successfully completely my biology major and Senior Research, my Spanish capstone, finishing my minors, and being a successful Senior Community Assistant. The only one I am not worried about at all is my Spanish capstone, since this study abroad will drastically improve my command of the language. I am taking courses here that will transfer for my biology major, which is a big scheduling relief. I think in general, this experience is improving, and will continue to improve, my problem solving skills since I am basically learning how to live in a different country more or less on my own.

And now finally my long term(ish) goals. Science students are underrepresented in study abroad programs because it is harder to accommodate our busier schedules (see rant above), courses that we need are usually harder to come by abroad, etc... So that puts me in a second groups of students that are underrepresented in study abroad programs, which will be very useful when I start applying to graduate schools for marine biology/biological oceanography. Also, in one of my courses here, we have trips to biological reserves, which even though they are terrestrial, will still help. And knowing a second language is useful in basically every field, especially if I would have to travel somewhere for research and Spanish is widely spoken (i.e. a large portion of Latin America). Even though my science classes are a bit more difficult right now since I don’t know all of the terminology in Spanish, it will be worth it in the end and will be better than only taking central curriculum courses here (which I don't need anyway).

All of this is also true when I'm ready to finally start applying for jobs (probably at a government agency or a university). There's probably more ways that this experience will benefit me vocationally then I realize now.

Meet Bruce McCandless. He was a bit of a bad-ass. In 1984, Bruce was aboard the Challenger Space Shuttle and became the first human to walk in space without a safety line. By utilising a nitrogen propelled Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU), he stepped free from Challenger into the blackness of space for a 90-minute space walk and wandered as far as 97 meters from the ship. The result is this amazing image which captures ingenuity, innovation and most certainly bravery.

Bruce McCandless died yesterday at the age of 80.

-Jean Image Credit: NASA