byron

BYRON


Byron has been in New Zealand conducting scientific research since June. He applied for and received a grant from UNH’s International Research Opportunities Program (IROP) to study the effects of UV radiation on sea urchin embryos. Byron will return to UNH in January to complete his bachelors degree and to contemplate his future plans. Options at this point include pursuing a postgraduate degree in the U.S. or abroad; participate in a research project in the Antarctic; or sail as an Assistant Scientist for the Sea Education Association's SEA Semester.


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GOING TO SEA
CREATING OPPORTUNITIES IN COLLEGE


SELF ADVOCACY


TRANSITION TO COLLEGE


FINDING OUT I HAVE A LEARNING DISABILITY


SUCCESS


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GOING TO SEA
In sixth grade I moved to the Cape. I loved playing in the water, swimming around, finding horsehoe crabs, setting traps. I loved creating a new aquarium, picking the fish and plants to go into it. During the summer of my junior year of high school, I was involved with the Sea Education Association. It was a summer program where I spent 9 days out at the Isle of Shoals and 9 days out on a tall ship. It was the best experience I ever had. I was in that teen mode of hating the world. Going to sea set me straight. There is no room for ego. It was great for me to get thrown into my place.

My senior year, I met someone who worked at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. He asked me what I was going to major in at college. I told him biology because of my hobbies and interests. I worked in his lab that summer. The job started as a two week research cruise. We packed the boat the day after my last exam and went out to sea the next day for 2 weeks. I was hooked on the feeling of being totally detached from mainstream life. I loved being at sea and learning to work with other people in close proximity, giving up yourself for the bigger picture. There was a whole group of scuba divers (not me, I wasn’t certified as a “research diver”) collecting specimens to bring back to the lab. Working all night through, people always working, I thrive on that. Intensity at it’s greatest. People passionate about what they are doing, I was psyched. This is what I love about science.

But then I came back and spent the rest of the summer in the lab. I was counting microplanktin for 8 hours a day. I hated it. I was miserable. It really made me second guess the field of science.  You know you write a grant for 4 years, all this number crunching to get the money, you finally get out to sea to do the research and you spend the next couple of years crunching numbers for your data. It is repetitive and monotonous but scientists can get through that because they have the motivation of discovery and in the end you have more questions then what you started with so it stimulates your curiosity to a higher level.


CREATING OPPORTUNITIES IN COLLEGE
The summer after my freshman year of college, I spent getting all these dive certificates and training for the Oceanographic diving program. I wanted to dive out in the middle of the ocean. I wanted to experience what very few people get the opportunity to do. I made the decision to take two weeks off from school (the next fall semester) to go on this research cruise. I got permission from all my professors to do this. It was just another challenge for me.

My professor at Isle of Shoals in the summertime throughout high school does research at UNH. I was really inspired by him, his attitude, and his stories on how he ended up in science. I have stopped by his office to see him every semester to ask for work and update him on what I was doing. Finally he said alright!  He put me in touch with a colleague in New Zealand. They both were studying UV radiation which interested me. So I wrote this 20 page scientific research proposal in the midst of taking 19 credits and being a TA (Teaching Assistant). Here it is: intensity! But I learned to deal with intensity out at sea. The board unanimously approved to accept my proposal and gave me the most amount of money they could award me. Now I am going to New Zealand this summer to conduct the scientific research I proposed!

 I get very stir crazy if I am in one place for longer than 6 months. I love traveling, I love discovering new things, and I love being immersed in my own project. To put the icing on the cake, I learned how to take everything I am interested in and figure out how to make it work and have someone else pay for it!



SELF ADVOCACY
My freshman year of high school, I was put into earth science and I wanted to take biology.  My school had it set up so you had to take biology with a certain math class. I hadn’t taken the advanced math class in 8th grade so I couldn’t take the math class and I couldn’t take Biology. So I projected that up to my senior year, I would not be able to get up to the top science classes that I wanted. I would be at a disadvantage applying to colleges.  I was insulted because my science class was a joke, not at all stimulating or challenging, and here I was interested in sciences. I went to my advisor and convinced her to allow me to switch into Biology under the condition that I take two math classes the next year. I switched into biology two weeks into the semester and ended up getting an “A” because I started off behind everyone else and had something to work toward. If I am challenged, I do well. If I am not stimulated, I loose interest and nothing gets done. The next year, I took the two math classes and I was fine. I knew I wanted to do it and I made it happen.



TRANSITION TO COLLEGE
I came to school and ended up drinking a lot. I was having fun with my friends. I wasn’t worried about it until I got kicked out of the dorms. I realized that I needed to look at things about myself. I needed to do a self assessment.



FINDING OUT I HAVE A LEARNING DISABILITY
When I was a senior in high school, I asked to be tested. They just looked at my transcript. I was taking advanced placement classes, doing well, and they said it was just not possible. But they didn’t see the behind the scenes when it would take me 2 hours to read a chapter. I realized if I am going to get good grades it is just going to take me longer than everyone else. I would  be the last one done on tests. Sometimes I would need to stay after class to finish. In situations like that I had accommodations although nothing was documented.

When I was having difficulty in college, I knew I had the potential to do well but needed the extra time to answer the questions. You can’t get a good grade if you don’t finish the test. No matter how much I studied, I was at a distinct disadvantage. In a test situation, I need to dissect the question and see how it relates to what I know.Sometimes my reading gets so slow that the concepts gets so chopped up, I can’t put the whole picture together. I have to read slow enough to conceptually understand it but it gets too fragmented.  I didn’t know when I was tested what the results would be. When I did have a learning disability, it was good. Finally everything I felt was being backed up. I am not just being crazy. It is not that I just can’t manage my time.

Now that I am documented with a learning disability, I am registered with the Access Office. I bring paperwork to my professors and they sign so they know that I get time and a half on my exams. In some situations, I am grateful for having the label. If someone doesn’t understand, I can bring out the paperwork and say, it is documented.



SUCCESS
To me success in school was never A’s. It didn’t matter to me what the grades were, I just wanted to put all that I could into it and feel that I was okay with the grade that I got. I don’t measure my success on my gpa.   

Someone saying to me you can’t do that doesn’t matter to me. Maybe I can’t do it the way they think I should do it. What I need to figure out is how to make it work for me.  So the no you can’t do this really doesn’t have much of an effect on me.

The way I handle my college career and my life, is really like how I was brought up. If there is something that I want, I have to work for it. The $1500 I had saved up from summer work, I spent on going to sea for a class with the Sea Education Association. I put every penny I had towards it. I know what it means to work for something.
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