Marine Biology

Club sponsor Julie Roberts

What is the purpose of the club?

The purpose of the Marine Biology club is to get together students that have a similar passion about the marine environment or the environment in general. They can do activities or listen to guest speakers. So, the girl who started the club wanted to so that people with similar interest. I can probably give you a better answer after the club has been running for a couple of months.

Why did you decide to become a sponsor for the club?

It made sense since I’m a marine biology and environmental science teacher, but not only because it made sense. I love to see kids when they’re passionate about a topic, especially a topic that I am also passionate about and enjoy. So, for me, when [Sophomore Keme Platt] came to me with this idea it was awesome to see a student that was passionate enough about it that they were willing to fall through and get all of the necessary paperwork done and have all these great ideas in her head. I love that I have the opportunity to kind of fuel that or help her expand on the passion of it. So for me it’s kind of rewarding.

What events/activities will you do throughout the year?

[Keme] has a list of some potential events. I told the club when we had our informational meeting that one of the cool things about being a member at the start of the club is that they can help drive and shape the club. The club itself not only focuses on the marine environment, but also on environmental science, so things like doing stream clean-ups around the neighborhood will help protect the environment. When you have a marine biology club in Kansas there’s not a whole lot — it’d be nice if there was an ocean nearby that we could go to, but there’s not. There are still things we can do here in Kansas to help support the marine environment even though it’s not nearby. It kind of is combining, for me, two of my worlds, marine biology and environmental science. That’s kind of exciting for me.

What are you excited about for the club?

For students to be able to get involved and really drive this club and make it what they want it to be.

What challenges might you face?

Since its a new club and I’ve never run it before, I’m not sure what our challenges will be. I don’t know if I can give an answer, if you come back and ask me in a couple of months I might be able to have a good answer for that. Right now, I don’t know for sure what the answer to that will be.

Sophomore club president Keme Platt

Why did you want to join the club?

I joined it because I want to be an aquatic animal vet. I know it kind of sounds silly because we’re in the middle of Kansas and it’s just kind of weird for someone to like that stuff. I created it so that other people could join because there was obviously an interest in the class and I knew that freshmen couldn’t take that class, so I created the club so that they could take it and it was an option to get started that way.

What do you think the club will add to Mill Valley?

I think it’ll add a lot of experience and people who like the ocean and aquatic animals will get that experience through it since you know it would be kind of hard to go out to the ocean during the school year.

What do you hope to accomplish through the club?

I hope to accomplish club growth and that lots of people will be interested in it. I hope that it brings more character to Mill Valley and I just hope people enjoy it.

What are you excited about for the club?

What I’m most excited about is going on some of the tours and having the guest speakers during our meetings.

What challenges might you face?

I mean there’s lots of challenges. We might not be able to get the right amount to go and do our trips that we want to. We might not do enough fundraisers.