Graduation Ceremony: Estuary & Ocean Science Center (22 May 2019)
/Exactly one week ago I attended the graduation celebration at San Francisco State University’s Estuary & Ocean Science Center in Tiburon. I had already finished my degree in December and moved to the Seattle area shortly thereafter, so it was amazing to see my former professors and classmates. It was also the day my boyfriend met many of my friends and his mother met my mother, so on a personal level it was quite a momentous day!
Below are pictures by Wil Matthews Photo:
In particular, it was lovely to see Dr. Kathy Boyer, whose wetland ecology class I took two years ago. Weeks after I finished her class she took me on in her lab as a volunteer assistant and then began paying me a couple months later. By the time I left her lab this past February, I had been working in her lab as a Fisheries Technician paid for my work through the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission.
Besides Kathy it was particularly great to see my lab mates from the Boyer Lab again. For nearly my entire time at the Boyer Lab, I was the only person in the lab who wasn’t a woman. It was a wonderful experience to be surrounded by so many intelligent, friendly, knowledgeable, hard-working, and badass women, and I’m deeply privileged to have had them as my mentors, co-workers, teachers, and friends.
Below are some photos taken at the graduation celebration by my good friend, filmmaker Beth Pielert:
As an older, non-traditional student who had faced a lot of struggles in my past attempts to complete my dream degree (of a Bachelor of Science in Marine Biology), it was really emotional to finally be able to celebrate. And I double majored in Biochemistry as well, which wasn’t even something I had in mind when I transferred to SF State a few years ago! I’m so happy to be done with this chapter of my life and to be starting my graduate program this summer with a five-week intensive course in marine disease at the University of Washington’s Friday Harbor Laboratories.
