In the sciences at Mount Allison, it’s got sort of a triangle where we have the fundamentals in first and then second year and then we specialize as we go up. So a lot of the first year courses are common to a number of different degrees. As you go through your degree, the classes get smaller, they get more intimate.

So my first year was just every science: biochem, physics, math and psychology. That’s a very kind of overview sort of year and then all of my second and third year have been specialized.

I decided to do biology because I’ve always had a passion for science. You can take sciences from other disciplines. I took marine botany, environmental science which I really liked.

I’m in biochem and I’m doing honours research with Dr. Tyson McCormack so I’m doing research on fish. It’s like a really cool opportunity to be able to do honours work and actual lab work at a fourth year level. Some people even start at end of second year. It’s a really unique opportunity to universities like Mount A where you can make really intimate connections with your professors and with your peers and your supervisors. Doing honours and doing lab work so early on is a product of that.

rom day one we spend a lot of time in the labs, there was a lot of kind of hands-on learning, a lot of interaction with profs.

The difference between large institutions and somewhere like Mount Allison is that the research is being done by the undergrad. So, we have quite a number of interesting research facilities that were built specifically for the researchers that are here and allow students to come in, like students work in these spaces every day.

One of the favourite things about my job is working with undergraduate students as their research mentor so that often involves larger projects that we undertake often over the summertime and so students get field experiences.

It’s not just learning in a classroom. It’s not just staying in a lab looking at a microscope either. You go outside and you analyze. That’s something that you actually have an opportunity to do. That’s why I love Mount