An Autobiography

I figured that maybe I should talk a little bit more about myself.

Things you know about me so far:

-Name: Abby

-School: Ohio State (Go Bucks!)

-Favorite animal: Elephant (duh)

-Reason for traveling to Tanzania: Study Abroad

I will be entering my third year at Ohio State this fall. I am majoring in biology and minoring in zoology. After undergrad, I would like to go to grad school (in Cali fingers crossed) and study animal behavior. Right now, I'd like a career in research. In a zoo, in the field, or at a school, I don't care where, as long as I can watch animals all day. 

I have always had a desire to work with animals (well, I wanted to be a jewelry designer, a teacher, author/illustrator, a hairdresser and every other typical career every little girl wants to have before the animal idea came around). First I wanted to be a dolphin trainer. Then I wanted to be a marine biologist, but the idea of scuba diving kind of terrifies me, especially at the depths I would be required to go down to! So I then decided that I wanted to simply be a zoologist. After all, my favorite animal is the elephant and those are on land, not 20,000 leagues under the sea! During my junior year of high school, my AP biology class studied animal behavior as our first topic. Learning about Konrad Lorenz and Niko Tinbergen and the idea of imprinting really sparked my interest and that is when I knew I wanted to study animal behavior. 

My study abroad experience is through a third party program called the School for Field Studies. They are a field-based, research focused program and they offer courses all over the world, from Tanzania to Australia and from Costa Rica to Cambodia. If you're into the environment and want to study abroad, I highly suggest checking them out (www.fieldstudies.org/)! My program is specifically called Techniques for Wildlife Field Research. I will be learning a host of field research techniques so that I may study the animals indigenous to the savanna (I'm super stoked). 

Things to know about me unrelated to my trip:

-I'm a big fan of coffee (kahawa in Swahili) 

-My friends make fun of me because I wear a lot of black 

-I'm weirdly addicted to stickers (I think I am a four year old)

-Target is my heaven 

-I have a goal to read as many classic novels as I can

-I'm a really, really big fan of chocolate 

Sorry this was kinda long and probably boring. I had time to kill at Starbucks! If you have any questions (about me or my trip) feel free to ask!

Kwaheri (good bye) and only 50 more days!