Marine studies students enjoy flexibility, variety in degree program
By Haley McKinnon, CLA Student Writer - December 15, 2023
As with any major, no two student experiences are the same in the marine studies (MAST) degree program at OSU, but through a unique interdisciplinary path that guides students into new understandings of the ocean, MAST undergraduates get to follow their passions into all the corners of ocean-centric humanities.
Entering its third full year, MAST provides a new approach to human-ocean interrelations, centered on fostering creative connections and transdisciplinary critical thinking. With over 90 current majors, this fledgling program is a success story in adaptation to demonstrated educational need: in this case, the need to reconnect to the seascape and bring the environment and people together. But what is it like to be one of the first students in a brand new major?
Emma Coke, a MAST senior, knew when applying to OSU that the program was new, further evidenced by receiving a hand-written acceptance letter. “It was so small that [they] took the time to write a letter to potential incoming students. There's definitely a sense of being more intimate because there's only so many of us,” Coke says.
Now, nearing the end of her degree, with only her capstone and a few credits left, she recognizes both the positive and challenging parts of going through a new program, but ultimately believes she got a well-rounded education. Coke will be graduating in the spring, completing her degree in just three years, so she’s been with the program for as long as it has existed. Over the summer, she worked as an intern for The Daily Barometer, the student-run newspaper on campus, writing articles pertaining to coastal and marine research happening on campus. With an applied journalism minor, and as Editor-in-Chief of Beaver’s Digest, OSU’s student lifestyle magazine, Coke is firmly planted in the path of environmental journalism, though she isn’t quite sure what she’ll do for her capstone, or after graduation. “I’ve always been fascinated by the ocean. I really like writing, and with journalism you can make a difference,” she says. “Originally I wanted to do my capstone on sea otter restoration on the Oregon coast, and I wanted to take a journalistic approach, but there’s already so much out there.” Having an opportunity to explore her niche interests on her way through the program has been valuable. “I feel like there’s a lot of freedom, which can both be really daunting but also be cool,” she says.
Lori Cramer, assistant director of MAST and on-the-ground point person for students and curriculum, aims to help students create their own major within the degree, working with advisor Cynthia Leonard. “There’s a lot of latitude in how you package your courses,” says Cramer. “Just the core classes are required, and you can put the rest of it together. I help students think about how to package their course electives to get them where they want to be.”
For Emma Chuang, another MAST senior, trying to piece together the moving parts of an interdisciplinary degree, and a brand new one at that, has been challenging, but she has felt supported by her advisors and has taken advantage of available workshops to help keep herself on track. Chuang transferred to OSU last year, having previously been an environmental science major with a focus in aquatic biology at a different school. She planned on staying with environmental science, but decided it was a little too heavy in the hard sciences, and after taking an environmental justice class that she loved, switched into MAST. “I’ve always been interested in marine biology, and I thought this was perfect because it had the best of both worlds. It’s the fact that you can do what you want with it, but it's related to the ocean,” says Chuang. “I think it's cool that you can put your own ideas into it and make it your own. That made more sense for me.”
Chuang did her internship with the NOAA Chesapeake Bay office on the east coast this past summer, creating resource guides for tribal nations in Virginia. The internship requirement is an important part of the program, in her opinion, as it helps students gain hands-on skills that they might not otherwise have in a classroom setting. “I used to not be great at reaching out to people and asking questions, and now I feel like I’m better at networking,” she says. So far, she has loved the Worldviews and Environmental Values course, and looks forward to taking Social Justice and Art for a different perspective on the environment, and Introduction to Sharks, which includes a field trip to Hatfield. For incoming students, it’s important to recognize that MAST is not a marine science program, although it is connected to OSU’s coastal programs and to Hatfield Marine Science Center for internship opportunities, guest speakers, and, hopefully down the line, full terms at the coast. MAST is also closely tied to Ocean11, OSU’s campus-wide marine club, which is led by MAST undergraduate academic advisor Cynthia Leonard. Many MAST students are club members or attend events: “Because of participating in that club, a lot of members of my cohort are all close with each other,” says Coke. Students will often have multiple classes together, too, and the administrative team tries to bookend the major with the same student group taking MAST 201 (Humans and the Ocean) at the beginning of the degree, and MAST WIC at the end, creating symmetry for students to see familiar faces.
One core class for MAST students is Introduction to Pacific Islands Studies (ES 260), a critical course centered on indigenous pacific and oceanic frameworks and methodologies, taught by ethnic studies professor Patricia Fifita. This course was recently situated into the core curriculum, and Fifita is excited for the opportunity to invite students to expand their ways of knowing. “I think it works so well because MAST is uniquely interdisciplinary, and it also centers in many ways the social-ecological perspectives, so it really works well for the course to be housed within that space,” she says.
Fifita started at OSU three years ago with the idea of building out a Pacific Island studies program, and has a background in ethnic studies and medical and environmental anthropology. She works hard to bring in guest speakers, literature written by Pacific scholars, historical accounts that highlight different voices, poetry, art, and other creative expressions into the curriculum to provide an opportunity for students to begin to imagine the Pacific and Oceania through the lens of those histories and lived experiences.
“The course is interdisciplinary, but it has everything to do with the ocean,” says Fifita. “The ocean that's inside of us, the ocean that surrounds individuals physically, peoples’ relationships with the ocean… I think there's applicability for different types of marine studies students. They can find intersections within this course, or at least it can help inform a way of understanding how people relate to the oceans in the Pacific Islands.” She also strives for experiential learning opportunities, like touring the cultural centers on campus and bringing students to the Reciprocity Garden, cultivated as a space for students and faculty of color to connect to the Earth, where Pacific keystone plants grow, including a large patch of taro. In the future, Fifita looks forward to connecting with voyagers and crew from the Polynesian Voyaging Society, who are circumnavigating the Pacific in traditional canoes as part of Moananuiākea, a four-year expedition to “amplify the vital importance of oceans and indigenous knowledge through port engagements, education and storytelling.” The voyagers are intending to stop at Hatfield in 2025, and Fifita hopes to be there with students.
“I’m just really grateful that this type of interdisciplinary approach and this critical equity lens is valued in this context,” says Fifita. “Living in ecological balance is a really beautiful thing. With curriculum, being able to invite people in on that human level has a universal appeal, and it can create a deeper sense of meaning and connection, inspiring people to care about the environment.”
According to Chuang, if your interests lie within any of the foci offered by MAST, and you like the ocean, this is a good program for you. There is space in MAST for social scientists, artists, journalists, sociologists, students interested in science who don’t want to be scientists – the options are nearly endless for creating a unique degree catered to you. “In many of the conversations in the scientific and academic world, people forget about how people are impacted, not just the environment,” says Coke. “Even if you don't go into science, even with art or literature you can still have those conversations.”