Biology student, Leo Varitek, is a graduate assistant for the biology department where he is researching fish ecology in Lake Michigan drowned river mouth habitats. Leo’s work setting changes based on his job responsibilities. Administrative responsibilities are completed on the Valley Campus, where he focuses on reviewing literature or scientific studies. Leo also uses his office time to work on data analysis. Outside of his Allendale office, Leo is hands on in the field in and around Muskegon. He and his team look at general fish in the Muskegon River, Muskegon Lake, and Lake Michigan with a focus on determining if the areas are healthy and if their collected data matches what they would expect. 

Leo finds that his graduate assistantship differs from his previous roles due to the leadership opportunities it provides. He currently leads two different crews and is responsible for creating and executing plans in addition to sharing the findings of his work accurately. Leo expressed that he feels that there is a bigger responsibility through the leadership opportunities that his research brings versus previous roles. 

Prior to starting his biology master’s program, Leo received a bachelor’s degree in Fisheries and Wildlife from Michigan State University. Leo explained that he grew up camping and fishing, and that being outdoors had always been a large part of his life, leading to his desire to continue learning about the outdoors and fish. Leo pursued his graduate assistantship because it would provide him with hands-on experience regarding the science and process involved in research.  

Leo’s favorite part of his assistantship is being able to be hands on and the opportunity to see various fish species that he would not be able to outside of his role, allowing him to explore new places that would not have been able to visit outside of his assistantship. Leo enjoys the team that he works with and described them as like-minded people that he gets along well with. He showed appreciation for his team as their similar liking for the same activities helps with the physically demanding portions of the job. 

After graduation, Leo plans to pursue a Ph.D. on a similar path and wants to continue pursuing every aspect of the data finding process. He is open-minded when it comes to where he would like to pursue his future work as he mentioned both freshwater and saltwater research as well as locations both in and out of Michigan. Leo believes that his graduate assistantship is setting him up for success, given that his current job responsibilities of designing a project, executing plans, and presenting findings to the public and professionals in the field are very similar to what he may do in a role as a fishery specialist in the future. His assistantship has granted him the ability to obtain hands on experience in the field and to gain confidence in his abilities for his future career. 

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