Hi! My name is Molly McDaniel, and I am from New Brockton, Alabama. I am a junior Urban Environmental Studies major. I am taking this class because I'm also getting a minor in biology. I have taken the Bio courses out of the standard order, so Genetics is actually one of the last classes I need to fulfill the minor requirements. I have enjoyed all the bio courses I have taken at BSC, especially General Ecology, which was a research-intensive course where we developed independent semester-long projects. (I can talk your ears off about snails around Birmingham if you're interested.) I am looking forward to this class because I enjoyed the brief look into genetics that I got through Cell and Molec a few years ago. Once I graduate from BSC, I plan to go to graduate school (probably the University of South Alabama or George Mason University) and then one day get my Ph.D. I hope to work in the field as a conservation ecologist with a focus on marine life. I'm really into coral reef ecosystems, and I think sharks are vastly underappreciated and misunderstood. That's why if money and time weren't a factor I would love to spend time in Australia at the Great Barrier Reef. I have also considered teaching, but I'm not sure whether I would like to pursue a formal route or educate the public through outreach like a position at a zoo or research institution. I had the opportunity to attend an Environmental conference in Washington, DC when I was in high school, and through that program, I visited the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute and since then it has been a goal of mine to complete one of their semester-study accreditation programs.
Hey Molly, it's nice to see someone who's so interested in wildlife and our oceans. I think it's cool that you have everything figured out from right now to your future and I wish you luck on your journey. Marine life would be great to focus on since there is such a wide variety of life that's inhibited the ocean and I think that being able to help with the coral reef's is something that can really change how our environment will behave in time to come.
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Hey Molly, I think it is very cool that you are so interested in the wildlife. I like the wildlife, but i am scared of sharks and the creatures in the ocean. I am scared of them because they are bigger than me, and I still have to hold my nose when I swim so they could probably catch me and eat me. I would like to hear about snails though. One time my friend stuck a small snail shell up her nose and it got stuck, but she sneezed and it came out. I told her she shouldn't put that in her nose, but she thought it would be funny. I would travel with you to the Great Barrier Reef because I think it is cool to look at the creatures in the ocean, but I won't get in the ocean. I also think it is cool that you have done research, and that you have been to an Environmental conference in Washington, DC.
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