5/14/25

As I am writing this, it is 11:15 PT at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and I am waiting to board my flight at 1:50 am. My friend Andy and I left the Columbus Airport at 6:30 ET and are about halfway through our layover. From here we will take a nice long flight across the Pacific to Taiwan, before heading to Kuala Lumpur and ultimately Kota Kinabalu in the Malaysian Province of Sabah. Sabah will be where we conduct our summer internship for the next six weeks with Sabah Parks. We will be working in conservation in various ways although a lot of the details of the trip are still largely unknown. But here is what we do know:

Sabah is located on the northern part of the Island of Borneo. It is renowned for its pristine wilderness and biodiversity. We will be interning with Sabah Parks, which vary in type and size, but from what I have gathered are all a kind of National Park. The first four weeks of the internship will each be spent in a different park, each with a unique focus. The last two weeks of the internship are dedicated to a personal project. I am incredibly grateful for this opportunity for a few reasons. The first reason is that this is truly a trip of firsts for me. I have not travelled out of the country since I was about 10 years old, and even then, I have only been to Canada and Mexico. I have been taking Indonesian language classes the past two semesters at OU (The internship was originally going to be in Indonesia, but Indonesian and Malay languages are similar lol) and I am really looking forward to all of the new culture that I will get to experience. The second reason is the location. Malaysia, specifically Sabah, is a place known for its biodiversity and natural beauty. Not to sound too cringey, but I live for this kind of stuff. Rainforest and tropical environments are something I’ve always wanted to experience but have never had the opportunity to. The third reason is that I get to experience all of this with Andy. I met Andy on an internship in Maryland, the summer after our freshman year and have been good friends with him ever since. He is a BIOS major with a track in ecology and evolutionary biology, similar to my Wildlife and Conservation Biology major. He has a lot of experience travelling around the world, something that I am very grateful for with my little experience.

To put it all simply, I get to learn about global conservation in a new place, with new cultures, with a great friend. This is an opportunity that I could not have dreamed of when I first came to school. I am quite honestly looking forward to everything.

By the time that this summer is over, I want to be able to look back and know that I took full advantage of this opportunity. I am sure that there will be bumps in the road, but that’s part of it, right? Just more opportunities to learn.

As the summer goes on, I will post every couple of days. I know that there was a lot of rambling here, but it is 3 am Ohio time and this blog is also new to me. So we will see how it goes!