The Spring Gappers are on campus! Our first week was busy getting oriented to all the exciting opportunities that are waiting for us in the next two months.
While we’ve only started our Environmental Issues class we’ve already had so many opportunities to learn, attending Dr. Conrad Speed’s presentation on his work with sharks in western Australia as well as the presentations held by three soon-to-be departing researchers on their work with checkered puffers, bonefish, and personality in sharks and rays.
Aside from learning, we’re all training to compete in athletic events organized for the end of our semester. Two of us are training for a more traditional triathlon, with our first run-swim at 6:30 Wednesday morning. Not to be deterred, our very own Stef Tai is in training for the newly created “biathlon” (swimming and now, kayaking).
We’re all really excited for the rest of the semester’s training, which will be every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 6:30am.
If that wasn’t enough we’ve also had the opportunity to get our Open Water SCUBA diving certification. We got to learn from Ron Knight for most of the week to complete our diving course and along the way got to visit Something to See and Tunnel Rock, both amazing places to experience diving for the first time!
The week of course ended with the Junior Junkanoo, where we were all blown away by how creative, colorful, sparkly, loud, and intensely fun a Bahamian celebration is. To everyone that was a part of DCMS’s rushing- congratulations on a job well done! The whole thing came together beautifully.
All in all it’s been an amazing first week and for an introduction to a semester it’s been unbelievable. The community has welcomed us in and we’re all so happy to have this opportunity. We’re looking forward to the next two months excitedly and can’t wait to see what they bring.
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