Rock Talk at Shoals Marine Lab!

This summer I had the honor of being invited by Shoals Marine Laboratory as an invited speaker for their summer seminar series called “Rock Talks”!

I took the ferry over to Shoals early on Tuesday July 11th to explore the island life as well as make connections with the interns and other students who were spending their summer there. My Rock Talk was focused in two parts: (1) My career journey in STEM and Marine Science and (2) My M.S Research.

During the career journey portion of my talk, I spoke about the communities that helped me along the way and was able to offer advice and lessons learned into navigating (at times) such an inaccessible career path for many historically excluded groups. It was a great experience being able to share my journey alongside the obstacles I faced with the next generation of brillant researchers to show that there are many different ways to end up at the same place. Most importantly I wanted to communicate that it is okay to not have your whole life figured out yet by the age of 21/22 like I didn’t. I was able to tell my story as a first-generation student, how I navigated the “hidden curriculum”, and most importantly how my connection to my mexican-american culture shaped my research interests. I was also able to connect with other students from other diverse cultural backgrounds who have also struggled with bringing in their cultural idenity into their academic work and who needed to know they weren’t alone.

Science and academia can be a hard place to exisit as a member from a historically exluded group, and others face even more harmful barriers than I ever will, which calls for a changed system that truly fosters equity and inclusion. For a long time in my journey, I felt lost and inadquete. I felt that all the opportunities I had recieved were out of pure luck, even with my position as a M.S student here at QMEL. It took a long time of unlearning toxic expectations of myself and work habits that often comes with academia to be able to crush down those imposter syndrome thoughts down and away. So it is very important that research spaces recognize that diversity will be an outcome of creating an equitable and inclusive space (something QMEL actively works on) and not just the act of recruiting said diversity.

Marine science, ecology and the biological sciences have many diverse career paths and it is very important to create accessibility between that accumulated knowledge to those working towards the same career. There should be no such thing of pulling up the ladder once you make it, and being able to be in the role opposite of the aspiring student and give back advice I recieved when I was their age was my favorite part of this experience. I’d be lying though if I said it didn’t also feel so weird to make it to the other side of that role! But all in all, I am so grateful to Shoals for inviting me to share this knowledge with them, it was such a privilege to be able to help others like my mentors have helped me along my career path.

In the 2nd portion of my talk, I spoke about my research into extreme events and coastal fish populations on the Texas Gulf Coast. I was able to connect with other visiting researchers on the island who were enthusiatic about my work and got to know more people in the New England area. They were such nice, welcoming people and refreshing human connections! This was a well needed push to fuel a strong end to summer before the semester starts up again soon!

This was also my FIRST time at Shoals and it did not disappoint! Appledore Island was beautiful, and also home to a colony of gulls and other seabirds which was very fun to experience as a vistor. Many thanks to everyone at Shoals for such a great day and for such a warm welcome!

Looking forward to returning to Shoals for the 1st 2023 CoastWise workshop in late August!

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