How I became an Estuarine Ecologist

Kat actually chose UC Irvine as the place to go to college because they had such a strong pre-med / biology program.

During undergrad, she had one quarter that was SO DIFFICULT. She took Genetics, Organic Chemistry, and Physics in the same quarter. At the end, she remembered going home, feeling like a failure because she was going to have to redo multiple classes. In fact, her Chemistry GPA was too low and the department informed her she would have to change her major. So, she goes home for Christmas break crushed and wondering what she’s now going to do with the rest of her life. She thought she’d had it planned out! She felt destroyed.

She decided to change her major to Earth and Environmental Sciences, change to the school of physical sciences, and do something that was honestly more reflective of who she was as a person.

So, she did! She also started to volunteer at the arboretum, and got really close to the people that worked and ran it. She stared to do research in the fresh water brackish marshes of the San Juaquin reserve (which is part of the UC natural reserve system).

She had the most incredible mentor, Dr. Peter Bowler, who she is still in contact with and shares marsh photos back and forth. She can’t help but attribute a lot of her success as an undergrad to his mentorship. And, it really prepared her for graduate school.

During this time she also got scuba certified and really into diving. She couldn’t decide if she was going to do Terrestrial Ecology or Marine Ecology. She was really torn.