Jelani graduated with a double major in Marine Biology and Ecology from the Florida Institute of Technology in 2011. As a “budding biologist,” after graduation she worked as a Field Research Tech in Florida and Alabama for a BP Oil Spill project focusing on the assemblages of nekton in the salt marshes and sea grass beds of the Gulf of Mexico. She had fallen in love with corals and had her heart set on going out into the world and saving them. During her year as a research tech, Jelani discovered that research really wasn’t as fulfilling as she had hoped. She loved the job, the place as a whole, and all the field work. But she did not like the other 70% of research. In college, research projects are compressed down to be done within a short period of time; real world research isn’t always done in the same way. Jelani currently is an animal care specialist for Landry’s restaurants, conducting daily husbandry tasks related to display and quarantine systems, water quality testing, aquarium maintenance, and quarantine medication.“It wasn’t until April 2013 that I got my next field related job. I am an aquarist at T-Rex Cafe in Orlando. When I got the emails about the request for the update on scholarship winners, it was here that I felt disappointed in myself. I had this amazing vision for what my career would be. So I found myself with my career taken in a very different path and myself in a very different place. But it is tonight that I realize that I may not be setting out to save corals in the way I imagined, but I’m saving them in a very different way. I take care of fish in a restaurant. A very busy restaurant that thousands, if not millions of people see in a year. Many of them are families. If those tanks get even just one kid to become interested in the oceans and their challenges at hand, then my work has not been in vain. I do dive for work, but I dive to primarily clean the tanks. I unexpectedly fell in love with the husbandry and my job may not seem very “scientific” or “biological” to some, but it could inspire some other “budding biologists” to follow the same track. Without the general public seeing these animals, no one would be aware that these animals exist, how beautiful they are, and how precious their homes are. I think it is important for other “budding biologists” and women aspiring in science to remember that your career may not take the expected path, but nonetheless will still make a difference to the scientific community. If you come across any other struggling “budding biologists” just remind them, they may not have found their place yet.”