by Katelyn King (’18)

Structure and function of vertebrate is your basic vertebrate biology intro. I specifically remember learning about the parts of an egg and drawing a bird skeleton for lab and dissecting a fish. Lots of labeling the parts of different animals.

Animal diversity had a lot of insects. I remember the professor explaining that every insect plays a role and that’s why she doesn’t even kill a fly. I think this class went through the phylogenetic tree and focused on some of the systematics.

I also took ‘Ecology of the Giant Mountains’ which was mixed undergrad and masters students. It was offered in English and had a week-long trip to Poland for independent research. I collected and pressed wildflowers. That trip happened in May and I was so sad it was at the end. I was able to actually make some friends who invited me to things and were interested in what I had to say even if they had to decipher it. It was a very emotionally and physically challenging trip that pushed me to work on a mountain building trails the summer after graduation.