Good morning everyone.  My name is rich Dietterle, I am currently a junior at Newmarket Jr/Sr High School.  I have realized that there are few students who actually know for certain what they want to do in college.  I am not one of those students, but I have had help along the way to find out that I wanted t do something with marine biology.  The School-To-Career program is a major influence of mine.  Without the School-To-Career program I wouldn’t have been able to go to Jackson’s Estuarine Laboratory at Adam’s Point in Durham and work with Jen Greene and some of her colleagues.  I also wouldn’t have had the experience to see what it is like to be a marine biologist near the seacoast, which was a project to have volunteers take car of oysters of their on, that the lab would grow at first, and see if the population of oysters in different areas of the bay would change.  I even got the chance to turn in a couple of days to help out more on the project, which I was very happy to do.

I am really looking forward in a career in marine biology.  We don’t have many classes that are focused on marine biology but, right now I am taking math and science classes next semester I ill be taking a Visual High school class about the behavior of animals and zoology.  I plan on trying to take more classes in high school that will prepare me for marine biology.  I am also trying to learn to scuba dive.

I think that school to career is a great program to have for students.  I think it will help prepare students for life after high school by providing them opportunities to “try out” careers.  I want to thank all of the companies and people o support school to career, especially Jackson’s Estuarine Laboratory for providing me with such a rewarding experience.