Educational YouTube channel coming soon...

I love science communication and watching educational videos and seminars on YouTube so I thought I'd start a new project that will help me practice teaching and explaining my research interests regarding various issues in fisheries and aquatic ecology. I have found drawing and doodling in my notes to be extremely helpful for learning and generating knew ideas.

Below is a cartoony salmon life cycle figure that I did recenlty-- eventually I will make a video that will include key information about salmon ecology and physiology in the context of conservation along the Pacific Northwest coast. Stay tuned!

The video will feature a talking head (aka cartoon me) explaining stuff, because why not? This will hopefully make the information more relatable and engaging to a wider audience of all ages.

First year mini update

(updated Sept. 7th)

Hello! I wanted to give a brief update about the first year of my PhD program, both for self-reflection and for anyone who might be interested in what I've been up to at Davis.

I started my graduate research position last summer, and since I've had the chance to do some light lab trainings, orientations, and volunteering out in the field with a few adjacent research groups in the GGE. I ended the summer with an amazing trip with my cohort and grad student mentors to some of the natural reserves associated with UCD (see photos taken at Point Reyes and the Bodega Marine Lab). I missed the second half of the trip to attend my best friend's wedding the weekend before classes started. As part of some of my coursework and volunteer opportunities, I got to help sample fish from estuarine (Suisun Marsh CWS monitoring) and marine (Bodega Bay CCFRP) habitats, and benthic macroinvertebrates (Putah Creek). Although my car transmission failied, I was lucky to learn about a good back-up plan from my advidsor, the bus system! Riding the bus turned out to be an efficient and economical alternative to driving to campus everyday-- plus it got me riding my big-wheel kick scooter all over campus and the city of Davis, which was fun.

AND THEN... to put it candidly, a BUNCH of unexpected challenges came up immediately following the start of my first quarter of classes. I became sick with a second bout of COVID-19, but this time it was more severe with acute symptoms. COVID symptoms took me out for much of the Fall quarter, with more health challenges to follow, including extreme fatigue, weakness, and what everyone calls "brain fog," although I have now learned that what I am still experiencing (almost an entire year later) is more than just a fog. Fortunately, I have an extremely amazing care team and support network both on and off campus that helped me get through many health and financial challenges that followed acute COVID. Quite recently, I've received a ton of useful information and more clarity about my conditions and how to work with them within the realm of graduate school.

As I was continuing to recover from several physical and neurological ailments throughout the first academic year, my care team, advisor, lab team, close friends (even a few in my program), loving partner and family members helped me continue on when I became discouraged. I even had the chance to get involved in some extracurriculars and outreach activities along the way, like STEM squad (an afterschool mentorig program), a scientific communication art show (a great outreach opportunity in the GGE), student groups, an E&E prospective graduate student mentoring program, and panels for Sac State undergraduates and incoming UCD graduate students in GGE. To top off this summer and my birthday week, I recently heard that I was nominated as my graduate group's student co-chair, and I look forward to getting involved and helping out our program. I've also been able to secure some research funding and a teaching position for my second year, so things are definitely coming together. I really needed these wins after the loss of our beloved one-of-a-kind cat/son Dio earlier this summer. With all of the heartbreak and grieving, Dio managed to summon our guardian angel-- Mya-- a kitten with enough spunk and sweetness to keep me and Louie sane as we heal from such a great loss of our baby boy cat. I am looking forward to continuing to recover and recharge after wrapping up a couple of remaining exams and classwork from when I fell behind. With all that I have learned and perservered through this year, I look forward to the growth, progress, and excitement that the remainder of the summer and coming school year has in store.

I will end this post with a photo recap from where it all began (see pictures below). I couldn't have asked for a greater father, who I owe my love and passion for the outdoors to. Thanks Dad for giving me that spark!

Me (left) at 6 years old showing off our catch, likely from Lake Berryessa, or maybe the somewhere in the SF Bay Area? Ignore the 90's scrapbook sticker...

Dad (below) about 15 years ago, after his first time taking my partner fishing at Pyramid Lake.

Beloved Dio (left) and some wildflowers from the garden that began to bloom the morning after his passing. Baby Mya (right) managed to achieve the head nudge of approval from the fierce Dio <3

Random dump of photos from the last year of PhD program experiences that I will update with captions as soon as possible :) . The first two were from my lab's super cool UCD Picnic Day booth.

Exploring Ecological Artistry: A Science Comic

I have an exciting update!  Last winter, an art gallery on campus (Third Space Gallery) kindly hosted a science outreach event and art show for my graduate program and it was a huge success! I loved seeing all of the different media and having a chance to interact with the Davis community alongside other Ecology students to share our research interests, passions, and future plans. My husband and friends have inspired me to learn how to digitize and color my drawings and sketches using my iPad. The video below is a quick timelapse showing how I created a Chinook Salmon comic drawing from start to finish in the program Procreate! Depicted in the comic is a scene of young Chinook Salmon highlighting a few key factors that they face during their first year of life, while developing in freshwater environments of northern California (i.e., Sacramento and Klamath Rivers), just before they begin to prepare for outmigration to the ocean.