Happy Sunday!
I filmed an updated full Masters Journey. I tried to make the video more cohesive than my original one. I go more into detail on some of the more recent updates. Thanks so much for sticking with me through this journey!
As always thank you SO much for all of your support,
Lots of love,
ALSO
What kind of content would you like more of from me?
Hello! It’s been a bit since I really sat down to give a mini life update. Work over at Lululemon for the holiday season has definitely been keeping me busy, as well as I am slowly starting to upload more content over on my youtube!
Not much to update on in regards to my graduate school journey; still some back and forth on final paperwork and deposits so I can get my certificate of enrollment to then FINALLY be able to apply for my Australian Student Visa. A lot of stuff with the process is just a stepping stone to then have another thing to do and check off the list. Also, there’s still hope I can move to Aussie in Jan/Feb but not getting my hopes up as that’s SO CLOSE!
My recent vlogs over on my youtube are pretty accurate representations of my life lately. I’ll put them here for you!
How’s everyone doing prepping for the holidays? do we feel good? are we stressed?
As always, thanks so much for taking the time to read this!
Lots of love,
I decided to finally sit down and lay my entire masters journey out. Check out the video below (it’s a long one) while maybe sipping on a nice cup of coffee. I really wanted to create a cohesive bit with everything from how I got into marine science, how I chose my masters program and hopefully where I’ll be going from here.
*spoiler alert* there were A LOT of bumps in the road and there will continue to be – especially If you’ve read this post.
I go into detail about my post graduate journey and what I’ve had to go through trying to get into a masters program for marine science research. This is what my undergraduate degree did not teach me and what I wish it did!
Grab a coffee and listen to me start with my college journey from the very beginning and hopefully where I will be going in the future. With my marine science background I get into how I decided on my college major and what pushed me to pursue a masters degree.
Thanks for coming along on the ride!
Lots of love,
I mentioned I was going to do this sort of explanation post here and this is inspired by my explanation of why I chose New Zealand to study abroad here. Quick back story: I graduated from the University of Maine with a bachelors in Marine Science (concentration in marine biology if that matters) last May.…
I first want to disclaim that I am not writing this for pity, I am writing this as the honest truth. I’ve been updating all of you on my masters research process over the last 6 months and this just happens to be the next update. You can find my last update here. I submitted…
I haven’t done a life update since this, where I went into a lot of detail with my future graduate school plans in Australia. So if you haven’t read that, or haven’t been keeping up with me over on my instagram, then head here to get more of a back story on what I’m about…
I mentioned I was going to do this sort of explanation post here and this is inspired by my explanation of why I chose New Zealand to study abroad here.
Quick back story: I graduated from the University of Maine with a bachelors in Marine Science (concentration in marine biology if that matters) last May. The last (almost) year I’ve been living home saving up and waiting to head to graduate school to get my masters.
Okay now that we’re caught up let’s get to why Tasmania out of all places.
The story starts back in October 2018, my fall semester of my senior year of college. About this time is when I knew for sure I wanted to go get my masters in marine research and I sort of had an idea on what kind of research. I sent out emails to maybe 30 different professors all around the world asking if they had any room in their labs for a masters student. Over the course of couple months, probably over 100 emails including circling back to different people, I heard back from a couple professors.
Along the lines of me wanting to move to NZ for a semester (here) , moving to another country or across the world was definitely in the question for me. When researching what professors to reach out to, I was the most interested in the poles (Arctic & Antarctic). I always had a fascination with the colder, more desolate places (hence, me vacationing to Alaska almost every summer with my family growing up). Those areas were almost always the least studied, and had the most questions to be answered. Furthermore with climate change and all that jazz, the poles are going to be the first regions to be severely affected.
I became determined to research in the regions that still had so many unknowns. I want to conduct my own research that will make a difference in the world (cheesy but true).
Okay, so now we know the cold areas are the way to go, but why Tasmania, Australia then?
Amidst searching for professors to contact, and going through insanely cool publications, I came across the University of Tasmania. For those who are unsure (it’s ok if you are), Tasmania is an island state of Australia. The University of Tasmania has research connections to Antarctica.
How much more cold and desolate could you get than Antarctica?
Many professors in their Marine and Antarctic research department have conducted their very own research in Antarctica, and also have contributed to many publications surrounding extremely interesting topics.
More specifically, the interesting topics they conducted research on was seals. I have grown an extreme love and fascination for seals. It grew especially when I had the insane opportunity to be a summer intern up in Alaska and take care of harbor seal pups and sea otter pups. It’s still insane to me that I got to do that as a freshman in college, a time when I was so naive.
*these are New Zealand fur seals i saw in Kaikoura, NZ*
Anyway, go past me! wooo!! I came across a few professors at the University of Tasmania who did research on seals, sea lions, penguins, etc. all around Australia, NZ, Antarctica and the sub-Antarctic Islands.
Not only with seals, but will many many organisms, not much is known on how they are, or will, cope with climate change (the rising temperatures, increased storms, etc). Which creates an even bigger need for scientists to have some fun in some and figure it all out. Because if we don’t know, or can’t predict how organisms will cope to the change, we could very easily screw up every ecosystem in existence (dramatic but true).
So long story short: I have been talking with a professor at the University of Tasmania since October 2018 about conducting my masters degree in Marine & Antarctic research alongside her. More recently we’ve determined that for accessibility purposes it would make the most sense to start researching Australian fur seals in my first year of my masters. Then, in my second year of research, depending on the results of the first round of data, maybe include other species too. It’s taken this long to figure out everything because….
*breathe*
Hence, I will hopefully still be starting my Masters by Research in Tasmania at the start of their semester 2 this coming July. I am planning to research the baseline thermal physiology of Australian fur seals and maybe their heat flux. –> So how they handle temperature changes & heat, how they produce it, how they get rid of it and how they cope with it.
I think this is the most cohesive way I’ve ever explained all this so gold star for me! I hope this makes sense.
Hello!
I mentioned the other day in my first post in two years… oops… that I was going to put together some sort of life update. So, here is that.
I graduated from the University of Maine with a degree in Marine Biology back in May 2019 (can i just say I’m so sorry for all the seniors this year, I can’t even imagine). I plan to go to the University of Tasmania this coming July for research in Marine and Antarctic Science.
After I graduated, I moved back home to NJ from Maine to live with my parents. Long story short, I have been in NJ ever since.
I started at a new full time job very shortly after moving back home at a coffee shop. I worked there full-time from May 2019-January of this year. To say the least, I started out lovinggg the job. It was not my first “barista-type” position. But over time, I out grew the position and the company and we parted ways early this year (if anyone is interested in a post on overcoming the loss of a job, or something like that let me know)!
Simultaneously, while working at that coffee job, for the holiday season I picked up a second job at Lululemon. I adore my job and currently still work there part time. The best way I can compare the two jobs is night and day. The coffee job felt like high school and at Lululemon everyone handles things so much more maturely. My team at Lulu really supports me and the company is built off of connection and feedback (which I love!).
But I knew I couldn’t live off a part time job so I went on the search for a second job. Not long after (about February) I got a position at my local indoor cycling studio (which I already go to a lot anyway) to work front desk. Thankfully, the two jobs pair really well together and up until this pandemic it was going swimmingly.
I really wanted to use the word “swimmingly”.
Also in my free time I have really been enjoying upping my instagram game here! Some brands have reached out and some people actually care about what I post, which is really humbling. I’m really grateful.
So Tasmania, why there? How did that come about?
I’m thinking of doing a post similar to this one where I talked about why I chose New Zealand as a place to study abroad. I’m really open to suggestions as I’m just getting back into this so pleas reach out and let me know!!!
Lots of love,
