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My name is Laura Anderson.
I'm from Washington, DC,
and I'm a biology major
on the Marine Biology Track.
We're at Hopkins
Marine Station down
in Pacific Grove, California.
We do a lot of ocean
research down here.
So that's biology, and ecology,
and conservation biology.
So there are professors,
and graduate students,
and undergrads
down here that are
looking into all things ocean.
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I came to Stanford knowing
that I love the ocean.
I want to spend as much time
near the ocean as possible.
And so Hopkins Marine Station
is a really amazing place
for doing both research,
and also meeting
all these incredible people
that are doing ocean work.
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Last summer, I took a
class for five weeks
where we went diving in the
kelp forest right out there.
And we were looking
at organisms,
and doing scientific diving to
measure kelp density, and what
sea stars were eating.
And I knew from then
on that I wanted
to spend as many quarters
studying down here as possible.
So I'm here for the quarter.
I'm taking a
biostatistics class,
I'm taking an ecology
class, an evolution class,
and then I'm also taking
a lab class, where
we go out in the intertidal.
And we're doing our
own research projects.
We go out tide pooling
when the water is low.
And there are all
these organisms
that can survive both when they
have water surrounding them,
and also when they're
getting sun exposure.
And so it's really interesting
to see the adaptations
and the different
morphologies that organisms
will have in order to survive
in both 10 degrees Celsius
cold water, and also when
it's 40 degrees with sunshine.
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There are researchers here that
are doing conservation work
in Palau, or Alaska, or Hawaii.
And to know and see what's
possible with ocean work
has been really
influential for me.
I don't know yet whether
what I want to do
is go out in the
morning, go tide
pooling every day for
the rest of my life.
And that might be it.
But it might also be
communication work, or ocean
policy work, or working
internationally with NGOs,
and knowing that
what I learn here
and the people that I meet
here is going to help me later
in life is really awesome.
It's an experience
that I'm so lucky to be
having, and definitely
something that I'll
want to do for as much
of my life as possible.
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For more, please visit
us at stanford.edu.
