Kaleonani Hurley – Graduate student in Invertebrate Zoology at University of Hawai‘i at Manoa
As an indigenous Hawaiian, the ocean has always been a presence in my life. I was excited to pursue marine biology in Oregon because I was taught as a child ‘ a’ohe pau ka ‘ike i ka halau ho’okahi – not all knowledge is found in one place. I remember my semesters at OIMB like it was just last week—early morning trekking to the intertidal, examining cool creatures in lab, and taking down pages and pages of notes from expert faculty. Everything I learned at OIMB came into practical use when I started my internship at one of the University of Hawai‘i’s marine science centers, the Hawai‘i Institute of Marine Biology. I was thrilled to test my invertebrate zoology knowledge with organisms I hadn’t seen before. I’ll be starting graduate school at UH Mānoa in Fall 2012, and I can admit with pride that my experiences at OIMB were the building blocks of who I am as a scientist.
