I’ve gone backpacking in the wilderness with my mom every year since I was eight. Those trips are where I learned resilience, adaptability, and a love for nature so deep it still makes my heart overflow with passion. Growing up, those weeks in the forest were the highlight of my year. While school made me feel boxed in, stuck inside when all I wanted was to explore, backpacking felt like freedom. I dreamed of living in that feeling full-time, not just for a week each summer.
When I got to university, I was excited to finally study the nature I loved. But I quickly realized that learning in yet another classroom still felt confining. I wanted dirt under my nails, real exploration, and learning through experience, and that pushed me to think and move.
I decided I wanted to study abroad and experience field life. So when I stumbled upon a study-abroad program called Tropical Biology on a Changing Planet in Costa Rica, I applied without overthinking it. Honestly, I didn’t fully understand what I was signing up for. It was field-based, outside the city, and cheaper than the other options. To say I feel lucky that I ended up in this program is an understatement. It was quite literally the best experience of my life.
When I arrived in Costa Rica, I got to briefly meet the six other students in the program and then La Selva [Research] Station was the first stop. I was mesmerized on the drive to the station, admiring the massive ferns and bright green mountains. When we got to the station, Orlando Vargas gave us our first introduction to the forest. That first walk was incredible and so was every walk after that.
As I got to know the others, I learned that I was the youngest in the group and the only one without previous field or research experience. I felt a wave of imposter syndrome. What if I couldn’t keep up?
But as the course got rolling, I quickly realized that I belonged there just as much as everyone else. My peers taught me so much, and I got to help them learn too. Over the span of the program, I went from never having conducted research to knowing how to form a question, build a study plan, collect data in the field, analyze it, present findings clearly, and even write a manuscript.
My first independent project was at La Selva, and I decided that I wanted to study peccary wallows: essentially mud baths that the peccaries make for cooling, grooming, and parasite removal, but they are also a crucial habitat for amphibians. I did the background research, developed a scientific question, and even found a map of peccary wallows from 2020 that another researcher had made. I was so excited to get started. After my project plan was approved, I went out to find some wallows. After hours and hours of walking, I couldn’t find a single one. I was disappointed, but I ended up making a different project working with ants. While I wasn’t as excited about my backup plan, it ended up being a great lesson in adaptability and changing course on the fly.
Now, I’m excited to take these new skills back to school and eventually, into my professional life.
There was one day in Palo Verde National Park, when we were in the classroom learning about GIS from Orlando Jimenez. Someone suddenly shouted, “There are monkeys outside!” and our entire class rushed to the window. A troupe of white-faced capuchins was leaping through the branches. We ran outside, watching them dash to a nearby limón tree, grab the fruit, and run back to a bigger tree to rub it through their fur. For most of us, it was the first time seeing capuchins in the wild, and the pure joy on everyone’s faces made the moment unforgettable. We stayed there watching with big smiles for a while until Orlando finally pulled us back to finish our lesson.
I kept thinking about how something like this could never happen at home. A normal class had turned into a wildlife encounter, and it made learning feel alive in a way I’d never experienced. Having my lesson interrupted by a troupe of monkeys was the coolest thing ever.
In the 100 days, our group grew incredibly close. At the start of one workshop near the end of the course, Naomy Luna asked us to share something that nobody else in the room knew. For most of us this was difficult to answer, because we told each other everything. There was no topic off limits. Through the semester, I got a lot better at opening up to people and sharing how I was feeling. This was a skill I had a lot of difficulty with in the past.
When it came time to say goodbye, I cried harder than I’ve ever cried in front of other people. And instead of feeling embarrassed, I let myself feel it. That moment mattered. It showed me how much I’d grown, not just as a scientist, but as a person.