Hello and happy new year! My name is Brittany King and I am a third year PhD candidate, in the department of fisheries and wildlife at Oregon State University. My dissertation research focuses on underrepresentation of racial and ethnic groups in marine and fisheries related science professions. My first quarter as a Malouf Scholar has been full of data collection, in the form of semi-structured interviews with participants, in marine and fisheries related fields, across different racial and ethnic backgrounds and career levels. My interviews typically start out with me asking my participants to describe their career journey, which I thought would be an appropriate prompt for me to introduce myself in this blog\u2026so here it goes!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
~<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Can you describe your career journey thus far?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Brittany King: Growing up, I always lived near water. I grew up in the San\nFrancisco Bay Area but often took The Bay for granted. At an early age, it was\nhard to see more than just water, but that all changed in middle school. In my\n8th grade science class, I saw a picture of a scuba diver with an organism in\nher hand and below it said she was a marine biologist. Until then, I had never\nheard of a marine biologist. but that day I went home and told my mom that I\nwanted to become one, not knowing anything about the occupation except that\nthey studied a world that was so close and yet so far from my understanding. <\/p>\n\n\n\n For college, I attended Hampton University, a historically black college,\nwhich gave me the opportunity to meet amazing people, who also wanted to learn\nmore about the marine environment. During my time at Hampton I participated in\nvarious research projects and experiences. One of my greatest experiences\noccurred while volunteering at the Virginia Aquarium. Through an after-school\noutreach program called Mentoring Young Scientists, I mentored a group of\nmiddle school students, and helped them to develop yearlong coastal trends\nprojects. At the conclusion of each year, the students presented their projects\nto the public at the aquarium\u2019s coastal trends weekend. Seeing each week how\nexcited the students were to learn about marine habitats and their effects on\nthem, helped me develop an interest in how coastal communities\u2019 impact coastal\nhabitats, and the importance of community outreach and education. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Looking back on my time as an\nundergrad, I realize now that many of my experiences during that time have\nplayed a significant role in my career decisions and my current research\ninterest. In addition to sparking an interest in community outreach, it\ninfluenced my current interest in underrepresentation. While at Hampton I was\nexposed to people from a variety of backgrounds, all interested in marine and\nenvironmental science. However, outside of my Hampton\nbubble, as a person of color entering the marine and environmental science\nprofessional space, it was hard to ignore the lack of diversity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The first\ntime it really hit me was when I started my master\u2019s program, which I often refer to as grad school \u201cPart I,\u201d at\nthe Bren School of Environmental Science and Management at the University of\nCalifornia, Santa Barbara. To this day, I still have a vivid memory of walking\ninto the courtyard for orientation, scanning the group of students and realizing\nthat of the 70+ students in my cohort, I was the only African American. This\ntrend continued after graduating from UC Santa Barbara, when I spent a year as\na 2013 Knauss Fellow, and again, of the 50 fellows selected that year, I was\nthe only African American. Both of these experiences resulted in me developing s\nstrong interest in underrepresentation in marine, fisheries and environmental\nscience related fields.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After the Knauss fellowship and prior to returning\nto graduate school \u201cPart II\u201d at OSU, I stepped out of the marine and fisheries\nscience realm and worked as a community organizer. During this time, I was able\nto reevaluate my career decisions and aspirations before finding my current\nposition in the F&W human dimension lab at OSU. The lack of diversity\nthroughout my early career journey, coupled with my desire to pursue a career\nrelated to marine and fisheries science, has led to my current interests and\ndissertation research. I believe that to better understand how to recruit and\nretain individuals from underrepresented communities, it is important to\nexamine the factors that influence individuals to pursue and persist in careers\nin marine and fisheries science professions, while identifying whether any of\nthese key factors are unique to individuals from underrepresented populations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n ~<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019ve spent the past year interviewing people with a focus on how their\nexperiences and social identities have influenced their career decisions and\ncareer experiences. As the interview portion of my research wraps up in the\nwinter quarter, I\u2019m looking forward to taking a deeper dive into the data. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Stay tuned!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hello and happy new year! My name is Brittany King and I am a third year PhD candidate, in the department of fisheries and wildlife at Oregon State University. My dissertation research focuses on underrepresentation of racial and ethnic groups … Continue reading