My adventure began about a year ago, in March 2010. I’d heard tales from previous years, and I knew the season for bear denning was upon us. For a small-town girl from Mississippi, this was a chance of a lifetime!

During my undergraduate studies at the University of Mississippi, I had the opportunity to participate in a study-abroad program in Belize. It was a month-long study of the coral reef ecosystem and the fishes near an island off the coastline.