Erica graduated from Ohio University with a degree in Wildlife and Conservation Biology. She moved to Alaska to work as a biologist for the Department of Fish and Game. She quickly became obsessed with the marine environment and the creatures dwelling in it. This scholarship will help her start the path of certifications needed to dive for the department and take part in research dives. Learning to dive will combine her two passions of outdoor recreation and wildlife conservation. She lives for the feeling of exhausted accomplishment after a job well done, a feeling she believes that diving will bring her.