Last Saturday I was able to present my undergraduate project at SCAS at USC. It was exciting and nerve racking. I got to hear a lot of very interesting presentations on marine pollution and other interesting research. 
I decided to go out to my sites this weekend one last time just for the heck of it. To my utter delight I finally saw a small school of unarmored threespine stickleback! They were in a large pond at White Rock Lake Campground which is part of the Soledad Canyon site. I counted 25 of them. I also collected some mystery fish from the Santa Clara: Bouquet site (with a fishing license of course) and I identified them as convict cichlids (pictured above). After some research I discovered these fish are horribly good at reproducing and consuming anything they can. There were over a thousand of them and they seemed to be thriving. It would be impossible to colonize a UTS population in this site with these fish present. They were most likely introduced by a person who bought them at a fish store then dumped them at the site when they no longer wanted them.
WE FINALLY MADE IT!! Cohort 2016 
First and fore most I would like to thank Dr. Jensen, Jaime, and all of our nursing faculty that has taught us all that we know and have created a group of amazing patient advocates. Because of them we are going into the healthcare field and making a great difference and impact in many patients lives. Below is a link to a blog post from John Hopkins that perfectly describes the importance of the work we do after graduation. It sums up all that we hope to be and desire to be, and I am so excited to fulfill that goal.
https://international.blogs.hopkinsmedicine.org/2012/10/15/why-i-cant-say-enough-about-the-importance-of-nursing/
I have learned so much throughout this amazingly crazy journey. I have found a passion that I am lucky to call my career. Looking back at all the struggles we have all went through during the program, I cant help but see them as the stepping stones that have pushed us to become the well prepared nurses we will become after graduation. Nursing school also solidified my love for caring for children which I am very excited to move forward with. I plan to work my way up into the neonatal intensive care unit and eventually go back to school to receive my NP with an emphasis in neonatology.
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