Eternally Curious

Film Review: Fly Away Home

Fly Away Home, directed by Carroll Ballard and starring Jeff Daniels as Tom Alden and Academy Award Winning Anna Paquin as Amy Alden, is a wonderfully unique twist on the classic growing up story. Amy Alden’s heartwarming rite of passage tale is intertwined with “Growing up Goose”…

Our Blue Planet

My ocean. That’s what my professor has on his license plate. That’s what he teaches to the largest class at Cornell University. He…

My College Application Essay

Dear Lorax,

Thank you Lorax. You, the “shortish and oldish and brownish and mossy” character, made famous by the pen of Theodore Geisel. You teach and inspire not just me, but everyone. Your voice, “sharpish and bossy,” sticks in people’s heads. I’ve…

Take a Stand Against Shark Finning!

One in four species of sharks is in danger of extinction, but every year, another 73 million sharks are killed for their fins.

Shark finning is a gruesome practice. It involves catching sharks, hacking off their fins and tails — usually…

Book Review: Earth in Mind

Earth in Mind: On Education, Environment, and the Human Prospect is David Orr’s realization that our education must be place-based and nature-oriented. It is not a recommendation that everyone must be taught the how and the why of being sustainable; it is more than that. People…

The Case for Curiosity

When I got home from college last May, I had barely pulled into the driveway before I was rushed and hushed out into…

Day Nine: Travels Home

We had to wake up super early to get on the boat to head back to the mainland and catch flights home. The boat ride was a lot of fun though, watching the sunrise over the atoll from the boat was a nice treat. And another treat — we crossed paths with a pod of spotted dolphins!

Day Eight: Last Day Living on an Island

Today we had a lot of fun. We went out early and set the long lines and the block rigs, then waited back here and Katie gave her talk on sting rays. We kept checking the lines and in between we had an awesome snorkel in the channel between two other islands. I…

Day Seven: Spawning and Feeding

We set BRUVs again this morning with a snorkel while we were waiting. We saw a big nurse shark while we were snorkeling and some cool fish. Then we set another bunch before lunch and found thousands of spawning dog snapper so we jumped in for a real quick snorkel hoping to…