I am absolutely honored to be the recipient of the Michael G. Scott Outstanding Senior in Fisheries Biology Award. I want to thank Michael G. Scott for his military service, forestry service, and his contributions to fisheries biology. This award would not be possible without him, and I hope to honor his legacy in the field of fisheries biology. Thank you to all of the amazing people that have supported me along this journey, including my exceptional friends who always motivated me to do my best, the incredible faculty in the Department of Fisheries Biology who offered me countless opportunities to develop my skills as a scientist, and my loving family who inspired me to pursue my passion in this field.

I arrived at Cal Poly Humboldt as a transfer student from Reedley College in the Central Valley. I quickly seized every opportunity to get my hands dirty whether it was puking and reeling in rockfish from MPAs, sifting through coastal sediment samples, or spawning trout in the hatchery.

The aspects of this program that I value the most are how many skills I’ve gotten the opportunity to develop in every single class. Whether it was seining and identifying local marine fish and invertebrates, reading scales to age Micropterus salmoides, extracting eDNA from water samples, and modeling catch per unit of effort of Micropogonias undulatus. I have been able to apply these techniques to my professional life which have allowed me to get recruited to work in many different projects. This department allows students to be immersed in fisheries biology and I truly believe this program is one of a kind. The friends I have gained through this department, both classmates and faculty, are friendships I will carry with me for the rest of my life. I am so glad that I didn’t listen to anyone that said I would get homesick if I moved to Humboldt by myself, because I now have two homes and two families.

After graduation, I will be working remotely for NOAA CoastWatch as a contracted specialist where I will help develop satellite products and work on projects with other NOAA scientists dependent upon their research. I have the unique opportunity to combine my love for fisheries and statistics with this job, and I am incredibly thankful to have interned the previous summer for NOAA CoastWatch which has made this current position possible. Looking further down the line, I hope to make helpful contributions to science wherever it can be improved to help better the lives of all living things on this planet. Thank you to all those who have supported me. I am honored by this recognition, and I am excited for the journey ahead!