Dean Gojobori

Student

“After I started taking marine biology, I realized how our environment is changing. And that’s something that’s changed me as well.”

When Dean Gojobori enrolled at SMC, he was firmly set on a career in graphic design. And while he still clings to that goal by working in an advertising agency, Ed Tarvyd’s marine biology class may well have opened other career options for him.

After taking the non-laboratory course last semester, Dean enrolled in the lab program. “The lab gives you hands-on training, which allows you to learn more about marine life. We also take many field trips,” says Dean, “for example to the beach, where we see directly how organisms live.”

In lab sessions he has learned how to use a microscope, dissect marine animals and investigate marine animal survival mechanisms. “I’m absolutely fascinated with marine life,” Dean says. “In this class I also went on a boat for the first time,” he adds. “And I got to look at maps and learned how to steer a ship.”

But the fondest memory Dean has is of seeing dolphins in the wild. “I think that was the most gorgeous thing I ever saw,” he says. “They came right up to bow jumping and racing with us.”

Dean, whose parents moved to California from Hawaii, still returns to the islands every summer. Right now, he’s considering a transfer to the University of Hawaii, which has its own island for research. “But if I really decide to go into marine biology,” Dean says with a laugh, “I want to learn scuba diving first.”

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