If you remember, one of my first activities while in Northern California was a day trip to the California Academy of Sciences with past scholars Sara Shoemaker Lind and Brenna Mahoney.  During this trip Elliott Jessup, Diving Safety Officer of the Cal Academy of Sciences, showed us around and spent his time asking me questions about my plans and hopes for my scholarship year.  The culmination of that trip was an invitation from Elliott for me to come back and spend a few days at the Academy.

Hence, I took Elliott up on his offer and after my time in Santa Cruz and Monterey I headed back up to San Francisco to explore the Cal Academy.  My first morning started off immediately with a dive in the Flooded Forests exhibit cleaning the walk through tunnel.  Setting up my gear on the edge of the exhibit I remember thinking, “I can’t believe I am finally going to be in the water with Arapaima’s.”   After jumping in, my mindset changed completely and I found myself more excited about waving at all of the little kids running up to the glass than watching the massive fish swimming around me.  After about a 40 minute dive my time in the exhibit was up and it was time to head back to the dive locker.

Throughout the next few days, my time was spent shadowing biologists, aquarists, and working on dive gear with Elliott.  I learned a lot about how aquariums operate, feeding schedules, and volunteer dive programs.  After everything I experienced, my favorite memory was definitely being in the water waving at little kids remembering what it was like to be them waving back at the diver in the tank. My trip to the Academy was awesome and one I will never forget!