By Tressa Arbow

What’s a SMEA student to do with a long list of goals and only one official grad school summer? As much as she can, if you ask me! So, this summer I divided my time between Swahili language classes, my role as NOAA Science Camp Coordinator for Washington Sea Grant, and preliminary data collection for my thesis.

Although I’m focused on Washington for my thesis, I’m ultimately hoping to apply my experience and the research skills I’m gaining in an international setting. I served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Rwanda and my primary area of interest is coastal East Africa, so I was very excited to be awarded both the Summer and Academic Year Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship (FLAS) for Swahili. For the Summer FLAS, I spent nine weeks in an intensive, full-time Swahili class here at UW. The goal of the summer intensive class is to cover a year’s worth of instruction in nine weeks, so we were completely immersed in grammar, language, and culture for each session. I learned so much over the summer, and I’m excited to continue my Swahili classes throughout my second year at SMEA and hopefully be positioned to carry my work to East Africa after graduation.

After over three hours of Swahili each day, I completely shifted gears and finished out my day in my role as NOAA Science Camp Coordinator at Washington Sea Grant. NOAA Science Camp is an awesome two-week long day camp hosted at NOAA for middle- and high-school students. Washington Sea Grant facilitates the camp, and students get to meet and work with NOAA scientists and environmental educators doing hands-on marine science activities meeting other kids who are also interested in marine science. For the last several months I’ve been consulting with the education team at Washington Sea Grant to fine-tune their camp evaluation tools, and I was excited to help them move that initiative forward during my third year of involvement with the camp this summer.

When I wasn’t in class or at NOAA, I managed to sneak in a few hours here and there to work on my thesis. For my project I have a unique opportunity to work alongside the Washington State Department of Commerce Maritime BLUE Task Force as they take on a year-long initiative to develop Washington’s maritime sustainability strategy. My contribution will be an examination of the industry from an equity perspective and recommendations for creating and maintaining an equitable maritime workforce. Over the summer I attended two working group meetings where discussions ranged from decarbonizing ferries to workforce development. I’m excited to use these meetings as a jumping-off point for my qualitative interviews throughout the year.

There were definitely moments this summer where I felt like I was running all over the place, but everything I did connects in some way to my personal interests, future goals, and skills I have to offer or want to develop. When I really think about it, I feel grateful to be involved in a program that allows me the flexibility to pursue the various things I’m passionate about – all while soaking up the best time of the year in Seattle.