Over the summer, I joined Bioma/LAST, an organization that deals with sea turtle and plant conservation who flew me to Costa Rica to help research sea turtles. While I was there, I discovered that there are actually many different factors that contribute to what constitutes a real-world problem, and I learned that climate change is affecting not only the sea turtles and reptile populations, but the plant life as well. There are more female sea turtles than males, which is a major problem, since reproduction levels have fallen over the past several years because rising temperatures cause developing eggs to lean toward producing female hatchlings rather than males. The same principle applies to coastal plants like mangroves, which need very specific temperature ranges to grow and flourish. As temperatures shift due to climate change, it becomes harder for both species to adapt and survive, and the two problems are more connected than they first appear since healthy mangroves help regulate the temperature of nearby sand and water, which in turn affects how turtle eggs develop. When I first reached the beach in Costa Rica, I thought it was going to be a fun little vacation but I quickly realized it was more than that. I was out there for a reason: to help something bigger than myself and now that I'm back in the United States, I feel like I accomplished that. For two weeks, we caught, weighed, measured, and tagged sea turtles while conducting research out on the water, and spent our afternoons planting different species of mangroves along the coast. Even the small details mattered; every turtle we tagged became a data point researchers can track for years, and every seedling we planted was one step toward restoring shade and stability to the coastline. Even if only in a small way, our work in Costa Rica made a dent in the current crisis facing these animals and plants, and it allowed us to become contributors to the larger, ongoing effort to combat the effects of climate change. With climate change constantly growing, its effects grow too, which is why I believe it's important for students and others to take part in projects like this one. We can't roll back the clock, but we can work to mitigate the damage already done and find ways to help these species adapt to an issue that isn't slowing down anytime soon.