Fellowship Experiences

A lot of plants, animals, and other critters call the Chesapeake Bay watershed home–maybe even you! Some organisms spend their entire lives in the Bay while others travel in and out of the Bay at different points in their life cycles. The river herring are the latter, travelers.

Every Saturday morning, I head to College Park parkrun, a free 5K community event. I moved to Maryland last year in the height of the pandemic and wanted to comfortably meet people in my new home. I was welcomed into the parkrun family with open arms, and it didn’t matter my pace—participants can run or walk.

Every year, the American Fisheries Society (AFS) hosts a national conference to gather scientists, managers, and interested parties from around the country to share their research and network. Because I am a graduate student, and the scientists who attend these meetings are typically extremely accomplished in their field, these types of conferences seem daunting.

I grew up in New York and have lived in Maryland for a year. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned since moving here, it’s that Marylanders love their state symbols–especially their flag and their crab. Sure, they cherish their natural resources, but it’s the blue crab that they crave all year long.  

When I finished my PhD in wetland ecology in April of last year, I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted to do next. I loved that I was finally making a career in my dream field of environmental conservation. I even loved slogging through soggy, pungent salt marshes in chest-high waders to collect water samples and take soil cores.