Fourth and Final Science Lecture Highlights Alumna's Career Path

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ELMIRA, NY (12/05/2018) Nicole Balk '10 joins the campus community on Friday, December 7 to present the final lecture in this year's Lecture Series in the Sciences. Balk will share her career path - from a volunteer fisheries technician (her internship while a student at Elmira College) to a private contractor for USGS - and discuss other job opportunities students may find in this the marine biology field.

Balk graduated from Elmira College in 2010 with a bachelor's degree in biology. She then went on to complete a master's in marine biology at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth where she studied metamorphosis in the American eel. Balk then traveled to Florida to work for Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

Today, Balk works as a private contractor for the United States Geological Survey (USGS) Lake Ontario Biological Station in Oswego, New York. She is a boat technician assigned to the USGS Research Vessel Kaho, a 70-foot all aluminum research vessel, to work on Lake Ontario during trawl and gill net fish assessments.

The lecture is Friday, December 7, at 6:00 p.m. in Peterson Chapel, Cowles Hall, and is free and open to the public.