For the past ten years, Sandburg senior Ashley Horvath, 17, has been dreaming of the day she starts her career.
Horvath wanted to become a marine biologist since a family vacation to Florida when she was seven. In July, Horvath took a big step towards her dream by taking part in Shedd Aquarium’s High School Marine Biology (HSMB) trip to the Bahamas.
Her journey from Orland Park to the islands began in February when she applied for the program, after a trip to the Shedd.
While in the Bahamas, Horvath and nine other students stayed on the Shedd’s 80-foot research vessel R/V Coral Reef II. While aboard, the students were split into teams and assigned specific sea creatures to focus on. They also immersed in the creatures’ homes by snorkeling in the waters.
“Our project was talking about the Nassau Grouper — which is an endangered fish — and we wanted to make a protected area for it,” she said. “[The group] all worked together on different research projects, but what we did was water samples. We tested alkalinity and toxicity and everything you could imagine. We did fish samples, pretty much everything you could imagine.”
