Cephalopod Advisors

Former Birch Aquarium Intern Turned Scientist and Professor

This came in an email today and follows on a lot of what our science staff has suggested. There is more of a preamble in the full post but I have included the section that stresses some of the recommendations.

In what year did you participate in Upward Bound?

I graduated from Baldwin Park High School in 1999, so my internship at Birch Aquarium must have been the summer of 1997! Wow, that was a while ago.

What did you do during your internship?

I was excited that Birch Aquarium at Scripps allowed me to help set up a display for that summer's Shark Week. I developed skills doing literature searches and setting up displays for the aquarium. I was also trained by several of the staff on how to feed a variety of invertebrate and vertebrate species. I made a lot of “Krill Shakes!”

What was your favorite part of the program?

My favorite part of the program was that the staff at Birch Aquarium trusted me to do my job independently. I gained a lot of self-esteem and it motivated me to learn more on my own. It was really nice to learn about the biodiversity in the marine realm and interact with the public.

How did your time at Birch Aquarium inspire you for a future career in science and/or education?

My internship prepared me for working at the interface between science and the public. I later had another internship at the Smithsonian Institution, which was comparable to Birch, and I am currently a faculty member at a university as well as being associated with a museum. Doing research, publishing, maintaining live animals in captivity, and reaching out to the public continue to be the mainstay of my own professional program.

What have you done since that summer?

I went on to get my Bachelors from UC Berkeley, my Masters from the University of Kansas and my Ph.D. from the University of Kansas Medical Center (with my research from the Stowers Institute for Medical Research in Kansas City, MO). I am currently an Assistant Professor at La Sierra University, adjunct faculty at Loma Linda University Medical School, and Research Associate at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles in the Division of Herpetology. I explore reptile/amphibian biodiversity and the evolution of vertebrate body plans. I have a lot of fun in my career and continue to be excited about all organisms (including marine organisms, although I don’t work with them at the moment).
 

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