Do you have any advice for a high school student who is aspiring to be a marine biologist?

Just have fun with it. Working in marine systems is requires long hours and a lot of patience, both in the field and in the lab. One of my mentors said to me “Science never sleeps, so neither should you.” and it’s totally true. You don’t get to rest until you’re done. Because of this, it is very easy to get wrapped up in all the work and start to hate what you are doing, but if you can just step back and find some time for fun you will be set.

Here are a couple tips that I think you should consider

Unless you are really lucky you will have to go to grad school to get any sort of job Join a lab at your university as soon as you can. The ones that allow you to do both fieldwork and lab work will get you best geared up for grad school and a potential career. take Biometry as soon as you can (biological statistics). It is a class that will benefit you throughout your career and the better you are at it, the more doors it can open (in and out of the field). Get an REU (research experience for undergrads) internship! They pay really well and you get to go to some really cool places. If you can’t get an REU, get some other sort of internship. Experience is key.

Goodluck on your endeavor, it’s an amazingly rewarding field to work in. If you do it right, you will get to visit some really awesome places around the world.

“If science were easy, everybody would be doing it” -Pete Edmunds