{"id":8628,"date":"2025-07-26T01:35:28","date_gmt":"2025-07-26T01:35:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/salishseasciences.org\/blog\/?p=8628"},"modified":"2025-07-30T03:31:28","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T03:31:28","slug":"day-25-a-summer-to-remember-farewell-from-the-2025-field-science-cohort","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/salishseasciences.org\/blog\/day-25-a-summer-to-remember-farewell-from-the-2025-field-science-cohort\/","title":{"rendered":"Day 25: A Summer to Remember: Farewell from the 2025 Field Science Cohort"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Thursday, July 24th, 2025. By: Lars, Miles, and Leah<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Picture from downtown Friday Harbor (photo by Lars)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I thought a lot about how I wanted to write this post. As we got towards the end of our time with Salish Sea Sciences, chore groups understood what jobs they were doing on the last day. I knew right away- I wanted this final post, this final message from our cohort, to be special. In an effort to maintain the original goal of the blog, as a daily tracker of all of our growth and learning, I will be talking about the day mostly as normal. Please, if you have any inclination to click off the blog now, don’t. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although some of us were gifted the luxury of waking up peacefully, others had a violent awakening. With an extra hour of beauty sleep under our belts, we each approached the big day excited! Pumped to see our families again, share with the science community all of our findings, and give the 2025 Field Science Cohort one last “hurrah!”. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our first activity of the day was cleaning! We wanted the dorms and labs to be spotless for the next group of kids to enjoy the space as much as we did. So, in typical fashion, we cleaned to music! Pop songs playing on Ella’s speaker, trumpet noises coming out of Miles’s mouth, and piano notes bouncing off the walls all the way up to the top floor. Similar to science, music is all about communication. We have grown together in that way, playing different songs with each other, dancing to new tunes, being amazed at all of the positive energy each one of us brings to the table. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We also began to pack up some of our belongings during this time. For some, this was done in a neat, organized manner. Separating clean clothes from dirty, neatly folding shirts and shorts, even organizing clothing items into packing cubes! For others, it was more of a shove everything into the bag and see if it fits. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo of post-sunset from Friday Harbor Marina (photo by Lars)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Next, we had an hour to write thank you notes to all of the amazing people who inspired us this summer! Whether that’s scientists at the labs, educators on restoration for the San Juan Islands, people who kept the dorms from burning down, or helped us with each step of our projects. There was a broad spectrum of how many cards people wrote, and how well they wrote them. The science team challenged us to write as many as possible! Orrin beat Wyatt over some clear differences in card quality. They both wrote a total of 22 cards! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our final piece on the agenda before the big project symposium was structured recreational free time! We went to go get ice cream downtown, many of us enjoying a variety of flavors on a waffle cone. We took our time to enjoy the moment, each other’s presence, and our ice cream, before heading back to the dorms to get symposium ready! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Annika and Leah symposium ready! (photo by Hitomi)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For the first time ever, the project symposium was being held at a very special place. Whale Museum Research Director Jessica Farrer (who had had dinner with us earlier) invited the idea that our program share our posters to the scientific community, our parents, and the public at The Whale Museum! This is such a huge step towards furthering our understanding of youth science communication, and I was honestly stoked we could make it happen! At 5 pm it started. Quickly the room filled up with mentors, families reunited, and friends from all around came together. It didn’t feel like a room full of strangers, it felt like a room full of knowledge, and appreciation, and science. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Leah and Miles at symposium (photo by Lars)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It is a beautiful thing when you realize that although you’re practically shouting to make sure the person you’re talking to can hear you, you have to shout because there is so much going on! So much of the information being shared was newly learned through our own hard work! To see so many brilliant minds in one room discussing their passions was simply astounding. You can’t recreate it; it’s a one-time thing. We all came to Salish Sea Sciences for different reasons. Maybe some of us really wanted to learn about one marine organism, or maybe some of us were looking for something fun to do over the summer. No matter what the circumstance was that brought us here – we all arrived on June 29th. Bags in hand, maybe a little nervous of what was to come in the next month–Completely a different person than who we each were in that room. Experiences build us as people. They change who comes forward when you present yourself at a time and place. Obviously Salish Sea Sciences built us up to be better scientists. But it also built us up to be better roommates, better town citizens, better conversation listeners, better note takers, and better friends. All of this hard work got all 19 of us in that room with an amazing poster right behind us. That is special, that is unique, and it deserves to be cherished. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our throats sore, and legs a little wobbly we returned to the vans for our final ride back to the dorms. Met with warm burgers, bags of potato chips, and yummy fruit we chatted with symposium participants, and reflected on the event with friends and family. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The night ended with bowling and stargazing together. All of the 2025 Field Sciences cohort relaxed for the final time together. Pointing our constellations, cheering each other on when we knocked out all the pins. Cherishing our final hours together. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Stargazing (Photo by Orrin)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The next morning, the majority of us departed at 7 am in a van with bags in hands. Tearful goodbyes were had, long hugs, and plans of reunions in the air. What we did this summer was once in a lifetime. You can only be in Friday Harbor in July of 2025 with the same 19 amazing people once. It was a rare summer, no matter where we end up, we had this summer together and we’ll all remember it. Nothing can replace it, no one can redo it. It’s like finding the perfect beach to watch an amazing sunset on. It’s a moment where everything was timed up right with the people and the place. It is so perfect, and then it ends. And you get back in your car, and think “wow what a great sunset,” you go home and tell your family about this great sunset, maybe you even took lots of sunset pictures! Every so often you bring up that sunset again and it’s just warm fuzzy feeling takes hold of you. and your back in the sunset, or watching the constellations, or seeing orcas from Deadman’s Bay. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sunset at marina (photo by Hitomi)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Thank you for the summer of our lives Field Science Cohort of 2025. Thank you to Maya, Adam, and Riley for your science and advice support. Thank you to Cassandra and Cara for being the most welcoming dorm family. Thank you to Tom and Caroline for running the whole program, keeping dinners yummy, and everything in tip top shape. And thank you again- to the science nerds. “A dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together is reality.” <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thursday, July 24th, 2025. By: Lars, Miles, and Leah I thought a lot about how I wanted to write this post. As we got towards the end of our time with Salish Sea Sciences, chore groups understood what jobs they were doing on the last day. I knew right away- I wanted this final post, this final message from our cohort, to be special. In an effort to maintain the original goal of the blog, as a daily tracker of all of our growth and learning, I will be talking about the day mostly as normal. Please, if you have any inclination to click off the blog now, don’t. Although … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes"},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/salishseasciences.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8628"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/salishseasciences.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/salishseasciences.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salishseasciences.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salishseasciences.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8628"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/salishseasciences.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8628\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8686,"href":"https:\/\/salishseasciences.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8628\/revisions\/8686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/salishseasciences.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salishseasciences.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salishseasciences.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}