Kahana Pietsch

Proudest Moment: Too many to count! While I've accomplished a lot in my classes, research, and personal interests, a lot of my proudest moments have involved introducing others to the passions that are important to me and seeing them get just as excited about them as I am. Whether this is helping someone catch their first fish or take their first backcountry camping trip, I think it's these moments I cherish the most.

The last 4 years have been some of the greatest of my life, I've had the privilege to explore and expand my many outdoor hobbies, fishing the lakes and streams of this beautiful state and hiking and climbing my way through its hills all while making new friends and learning new things. I've been incredibly fortunate to get to be a part of multiple research projects in my department and learn through my classes more about my field than I even knew existed when I first started here. I'm continuing my work studying abalone withering syndrome in the labs of Carolyn Friedman for at least the next year and where life will take me after that I don't know but I'm sure looking forward to it! I'm incredibly grateful to all the staff and fellow students without whose support I could never have made it this far.