Michael Scott served our country both at home and abroad, and I want to thank him for hisservice. I am very honored to receive this award, and I value the opportunity to carry on hislegacy in the fisheries field. I want to thank all of the fisheries faculty, as well as my family andfriends for supporting my education during my time as an undergraduate.

Looking back, Cal Poly Humboldt was the perfect place for me to attend college. I say thisbecause I strongly feel that the education I gained here was completely unique, and could not bereplicated anywhere else in the world. Specifically, the fisheries program has provided me withunique opportunities to: interact with indigenous communities, trawl for offshore species,explore ancient forest creeks, perform extensive genetics labwork, and work in a fullyfunctioning fish hatchery on campus. These opportunities only exist because of a faculty thatreally cares about exposing their students to as many hands-on experiences as possible. I thinkit’s also important to note that my college experience was significantly hampered by theCOVID-19 pandemic, and I still was able to gain, what I believe to be, a world-class education.Once again, thank you to all the faculty and staff that make these experiences possible forundergraduate students.

I grew up in the Pacific Northwest and watched firsthand as several of the fisheries I loved wereforced to close due to low population numbers. I want to stop this from happening in the futureby working to create regulations that are better at sustainably managing fisheries for the benefitof people and the environment.