As SEASCape comes to a close, we stayed on campus today. We woke up at 7:30 and had a watch meeting to discuss what to do on Thursday.

We began with a class with Maia, focusing on Geological Oceanography. We learned about ocean basin mapping, mid-ocean ridges, and sediments. Then we had class with Dan the man, focusing on the Age of Exploration, the discovery of gyres, seasonal winds, and currents.

During my freshman year at Howard University, I participated in a research-intensive honors laboratory, a PHAGES program, which ignited my interest in the field of microbiology. The objective of this course was to isolate, analyze, and characterize a bacteriophage from the environment. Bacteriophages are viruses that infect bacteria, as well as replicate within the bacteria. This course enlightened me about the intricacies of how phages infect bacteria, what type of differences are in their genomes, and how phages could be used in a variety of biomedical, health, environmental, and ecological functions.

As this is our last Sunday at SEASCape, we had many options for activities to participate in during the day.  We began with a wonderful breakfast at 9:00 am of eggs, bacon, coffee, and English Muffins.  Some of us had the opportunity to tie dye if we had previously disliked our first tie dye shirts, and a few others decided to join in by tie dying their own shirts.

Today, all 25 of us woke up bright and early at 7:30 A.M. and started our day! During our daily watch meetings, we learned a new bend, which is when you tie two pieces of ropes together, called the Sheet Bend. Then, we started our academic day with Dan the man’s Oceans and Societies class, where we learned about the relationship between slavery in the Caribbean and the ocean, along with the history behind slavery itself.

Woods Hole continues to exceed my expectations. These past nine weeks with the Woods Hole Research Center (WHRC) have been fun, but very demanding: coring 30 centimeters (cm) of soil, hugging trees, and clipping vegetation. Not to mention, the bug bites! Regardless, this was the adventure I was seeking.

We awoke this awoke this morning at approximately 7:30 to a lovely pancake breakfast made by our wonderful chef, Sabrina. We completed our daily chores and then headed off to the picnic tables for our watch meetings. We worked on our leadership prompts and went over announcements. We marched up the hill to the Madden Center, where we were greeted by the admission counselors for SEA Semester. We were given a presentation on the various courses that SEA Semester offers.

Today we woke up at 6:30 and after the usual chores, we had our watch meetings and learned how to tie a bowline knot. While some of us were able to complete the knot right away, some struggled to tie it. The RA’s challenged some of us to tie the knots in weird and creative ways such as, tying it behind the back, with our feet, and by closing our eyes.

This internship has been a great and exciting experience. From the course on climate change, to the interesting field trips, and the cool research. Now that the days are beginning to count down and we’re close to our final presentation day it’s crunch time. Most of us are working hard with our mentors to finalize the work we have been doing for the past two months so we can present our findings.

The day began with our wake up call at 07:30, followed by cereal at 07:45. First off in the classroom, we reflected with Dan the Man on last night’s movie, Whale Rider, and its connection to whaling and Maori culture. We also gained a brief background on the International Whaling Commission, which will come in handy tomorrow when we represent different nations in a debate on the renewal of the IWC’s whaling moratorium.

When I was in high school I participated in the Mathematics Science Engineering Academy pipeline program hosted by Fort Valley State University. The mission of this program is to “alleviate the underrepresentation of women and minorities in the energy industry”. As a rising ninth grader I travelled with them to Reston, Virginia, headquarters of the United States Geological Survey (USGS).