I am a current senior at the University of California, Santa Cruz studying Environmental Sciences, graduating in the spring, and currently in the process of applying for graduate school. With the ability to take classes from multiple disciplines, I have gravitated heavily towards ocean sciences. I am also completing a minor in Sustainability, where I focus my interests on technologies and methods to take my knowledge in the sciences and apply it towards preserving the environment for future generations. I entered the University of California, Santa Cruz as an independent student moving from my home state of Montana to California completely on my own. With that comes a lot of self-dependency, which has propelled me forward into many new experiences to find my interests and lifetime career goals. For example, over the past few years, I have participated in several internships to help determine what exactly I am interested in within the realm of environmental science, including a current internship with NOAA working on tagging and tracking Coho Salmon. The biggest goal I am looking to address is the sequestration of carbon from the atmosphere, specifically looking at the oceans as our resource. Using the resources we already have to find ways to study the impacts of redirecting carbon from the atmosphere to the ocean could be the biggest solution to the climate issues we are facing today. The second I moved to Santa Cruz I took advantage of the opportunity to connect myself with the ocean, from surfing, to scuba diving, to coastal habitat internships and research. During that time I have found a love for the ocean, but also a realization of how crucial it is to protect our oceans. With the help of that connection and courses such as Biological Oceanography and Marine Environments, I began to both understand and witness the impacts of ocean acidification, increased storm events, and biomagnification of microplastics within the food web. My decision to apply to graduate programs in climate and ocean sciences stems from the hope of obtaining a deeper understanding of the effects that climate change is having on our oceans and how this is further changing our everyday lives on land. I also want to be able to analyze ways in which the ocean is currently being used to progress climate technology, such as in wave energy, kelp farms for carbon sequestration, sparking phytoplankton blooms, and to determine the best solutions to implement, depending on the harms and benefits each may have on marine ecosystems. My recent acceptances into programs such as Columbia University’s Sustainability Science and my current candidacy for Scripps’ Institute of Oceanography Climate Science program are the next steps towards completing my goals of ocean conservation and combating the impacts of climate change as it relates to the ocean.