Shayle Matsuda

From there, basically, I wanted to make sure that was the right choice.

And so I applied to these little internet cafes, applying to these coral reef monitoring volunteerships just to learn a little bit more, make sure this is the big life place.

switch I was ready to make.

And I joined one that was in the Yucatan in Mexico, where I went out and lived for three months and learned to identify all the species of coral out there.

And we participated in monitoring transects that were then used by local NGOs to compare the protected sites that they had gotten protection for versus the sites that weren't.

And that experience really solidified that.

I moved back to San Francisco.

I went to City College to make up some coursework that I hadn't done the first time.

I was volunteering as a diver at an aquarium to get more hands-on experience.

I started volunteering in a research lab at the California Academy of Sciences.

And then I was bartending to pay the bills.

And then from there, I realized that being at a museum was such an exciting place, because you've got researchers studying everything.

You've got that.

You've got tourists.

Like community folks from the neighborhood who are like right upstairs that you can just go upstairs and talk to about like all the really cool things that we're working on.

And then moving on, you know, from there to my to my Ph.D., where I am now was, you know, I was at that point I was like pretty much sold.

It's so beautiful.

Yeah.

It's so beautiful.

Corals come in all shapes and sizes.