You know those people that always seem to know exactly what they want to do with their lives? The people that when you ask what they want to do when they graduate don't look at you in a panic, but give an articulate answer. The ones that came into college knowing exactly what they wanted to major in, and what job they want to get as soon as they graduate? A long time ago, I used to be one of those people. When I was five I knew exactly what I wanted to be when I grew up. I was going to be an underwater artist that studied marine biology, lived in a submarine, and drew pictures of all of the amazing creatures I discovered at the bottom of the ocean (I was also going to marry my best friend who was going to be an artist in space, but that's neither here nor there). When I was five I really had my life together, then as I got older I slowly became more and more indecisive. By the time I was entering my freshmen year of college I had no idea what I wanted to major in, or what I wanted to do with my life once I graduated college. I had met so many amazing people that did so many cool things, that I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my own life. But I wasn’t kidding earlier when I said I had my life together at the age of five. After taking a variety of classes and exploring my interests my freshmen and sophomore years of college, I decided to study how the environment and people affect marine systems. I may not want to live in a submarine anymore or marry my best friend from when I was in kindergarten, but I am still passionate about studying marine biology, learning how we can protect the marine environment, and art.
My freshman year of college started off like a lot of people’s freshman year, I was unsure of exactly what I wanted to do in college and didn’t even want to think about what I was going to do after I graduated. I was stressed about not knowing what I wanted to do, and I didn’t really believe everyone that told me I had time to figure it out. My first quarter at UW, I decided to take a freshman interest group class that was focused on the environment and the different environmental majors offered on campus, and it rekindled my interest in marine biology. We only spent one week discussing marine systems, but I found it fascinating and it inspired me to take an oceans class the next quarter, and a marine biology course the next year. During this time I also took a random Urban Design and Planning Course. What started as an interesting looking course to fill a general education requirement, quickly became something I was extremely interested in. It inspired me to look more into CEP and the Urban Design and Planning department. When I took CEP 200 the next winter, I fell in love with the class, and knew I wanted to apply to be a part of the major. After getting into the major and realizing just how much flexibility to create my own education path I truly had, I realized that I want to focus on how the built environment effects the marine environment and other natural systems.
Over the course of the two years I spent in CEP, I took classes that focused on how the natural and built environments interact with each other, as well as marine biology classes and research methods classes. I decided to minor in marine biology after taking FISH 250, my sophomore year, and after taking more Environmental Science and Resource Management (ESRM) classes, and Urban Design and Planning (URBDP) classes, I decided to minor in those as well my senior year. Within the major’s required classes, I chose to be a part of the communications committee all six quarters. In this committee I learned more than I ever imagined I would about graphic design and web design, and was able to merge my passion for art with the other things I was learning.
The classes I have taken for the marine biology minor have been some of my favorite I have taken at the University of Washington. My favorite class of all of them was studying at UW’s research station in Friday Harbor Washington. While there I got to spend five weeks learning about local marine birds and mammals, exploring the San Juan Islands, and conducting research with a team of my peers on marine bird flight patterns. (You can read more about that here.) This class was one of my favorites because I got to spend a lot of time out in the field and work with some of the most inspiring peers I have met during my time in college. Doing research and working outside and in the field really taught me that I want to go into a career where I have the opportunity to do that. I do not necessarily want to be in the field every single day, but after this experience I have learned that fieldwork, or jobs where I can get outside and be in nature, are what I want to do with my life. Working with the other students I met there also taught me a lot about myself, and what I want in the future. I made some of my best friends in college during this program, and learned that working with others and having a work environment where I can laugh and joke around while doing the work is also extremely important to me.
The ESRM minor has provided me with opportunities to learn many interesting things, including how to mitigate conflict that arises around environmental issues, that plants can be used to remove pollutants from contaminated soils, and that I do better in classes and on projects that I am engaged in. The ESRM classes that I have taken during my time at UW have always seemed the easiest to me, and at first I thought the classes truly were just easier than other classes I took. But looking back on the classes I realized that the material was never that much easier (if it was easier at all) than the other classes I was in, the only difference was my interest level. Every single ESRM class I have taken has peaked my interest and curiosity, and because of this I have spent more time on these classes and done better in them. When I told my parents I wanted to study how the built environment affects the natural environment they weren’t surprised at all, even though I felt like I had just made a terribly difficult decision. When I asked them why they weren’t surprised, they just told me that every single time I had come home and talked about a class I was excited about, it had something to do with conservation, sustainability, or protecting the environment. While I spent the first two years of college agonizing over what I wanted to study, my parents knew all along I would end up studying the built and natural environment, because they could see it is what I was passionate about. My minor in ESRM also led me to take a study abroad trip to Costa Rica. This was an amazing trip, and I learned a lot from it (you can read more about it here), but I didn’t have as much fun on this trip as I did the weeks before in Friday Harbor. I was so surprised, because I expected Costa Rica to be exponentially more fun than Friday Harbor Labs when I originally enrolled in both programs, but the opposite ended up being true. Looking back on the experiences I learned that the people that I’m working with are one of the most important parts of having a good work experience. I liked the people I was with in Costa Rica, and the experiences I had were amazing, but the friendships and relationships I created in Friday Harbor were so strong, that they made that experience even better than studying abroad in one of the most beautiful places I have ever been.
The final minor I have is in URBDP. This minor happened more by chance than purposeful planning. I had been interested in URBDP ever since taking URBDP 200 my freshman year, and because of this I had taken several URBDP courses throughout my sophomore and junior years. My senior year when I was auditing my degree, and looking at the different minors available, I realized that I had already completed all of the minor requirements and that all I needed to do was declare it. While it was not intentional originally to get the minor, the fact that I had already completed the requirements shows how much I loved the subject. I was so interested in the topic that I took enough classes in it to get a minor, before I knew the minor was available. Urban Design and Planning is something that I had never thought about until I took that first class on the history of cities. I don’t know how I had never thought about it before, because it is clear to me now that a lot of planning and effort goes into designing and planning cities, but before this first course, it had never crossed my mind. Within the URBDP minor, I learned that environmental planning and sustainability were up and coming disciplines within the field, and focused the classes I took on those. I learned a lot of things in this minor that paired well with what I had learned in my ESRM and marine biology classes.
When everything I learned from my three minors and CEP core classes are synthesized together, I gained a better understanding of how the built environment and natural environment interact with each other. The goal for my education when I entered CEP was to learn about how the built environment impacts the natural environment. Looking back at what I have learned, I not only learned how the built environment affects the natural environment, but also how the natural environment affects the built environment, and what I can do to evaluate the sustainability of these interactions.
I have not abandoned my passion for art over the years either. Within CEP, I joined the communications committee and stuck with it for my entire CEP carrier. In communications I learned how to use the Adobe Suite and how to make a website by working on projects for the major using InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator, and WordPress. I was able to expand on the skills I learned in communications by applying them to other aspects of my life as well. In my Sorority I was assistant historian. This job entailed making cover photos, profile pictures, pamphlets, and posters as well as managing one of our websites. This gave me more practice using the Adobe Sweet and WordPress, and allowed me to use them in a different way than how we market CEP. One of the coolest things I was able to do within the communications committee was design and create the Research page on the CEP website. As the major grows the website will change and more pieces will be added, but I was able to get the page started. This project was rewarding and reminded me just how much I love doing large projects. The project took almost a year to complete, but all the work and effort I put into it was worth it when I was able to look at the final published product.
When I was five I wanted to be a marine biologist and an artist, and now, finishing my undergraduate degree, I still do. There are many paths that I can take after graduation to get there, and I am still looking into which path I want to take. One option is going to graduate school for Marine Biology after working for either the Parks Service, or another organization where I can get more experience with conservation. Another option is to not go to graduate school at all, and instead using the experiences I have gained from my undergraduate degree to work for an organization dedicated to protecting the environment, or a government organization. Currently I am leaning towards the graduate school path because one of my long-term goals is to become a research professor at a University. As a professor I can research and work on projects related to the natural and built environments and inspire others like the professors I have had inspired me.
Right now I am planning to work as an AmeriCorps service member for a year or two, and then to travel for a while before either going to graduate school or starting my career. I want to work as an AmeriCorps member right now because it is a great opportunity to give back to my community, and right now it is a feasible option, where in the future I might not be able to afford the low pay. I am hoping to gain skills related to conservation and environmental education and gain a better idea of what exactly I want to do within the sustainability field. After this experience I believe I will be more prepared to choose between graduate school and starting a career, but who knows? Maybe I’ll have an experience that completely changes my life path during the next few years. Only the future can tell, but I am excited to start on the next chapter of my life.