Alumni Profile
Marine Institute of Memorial University of Newfoundland
Eugenie Jacobsen
Fry Family Foundation Graduate Student Leadership Award, 2022 and 2024
Fry Family Foundation Graduate Student Leadership Award, 2022 and 2024
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Listen to Eugenie on WaveCast: https://open.spotify.com/show/3HVpHZXJZRKvemLCcfsFqb?si=67e838a8a6d24e0d Watch Arctic videos: https://www.tiktok.com/@polargenie |
My story starts with jellyfish. Ever since I was a child growing up on the water on the Sunshine Coast, British Columbia, I was captivated by the blobs of goop. As I got older, I noticed that the types of jellyfish in the water were changing. The jellies were bigger and in much greater numbers; not to mention the names seemed to be evolving from Moon Jellyfish to Fried Egg Jellyfish. I had many questions. Jellyfish would take over entire bays in the summer months, but where did they go in the winter? Where did they even come from? I had a lot more questions than I had answers. Before I knew it, I had developed a love for marine ecology, which was quickly followed by my love for talking about marine ecology. I even started to work as a kayak guide teaching groups about marine life, and creating short marine science videos to share with schools.
My path then led me to the University of British Columbia, where I completed my Bachelor of Science in Oceanography and Biology. I worked in a chemical oceanography lab that visited the Arctic every year. My colleagues recounted stories about their time working on a research icebreaker ship and the wondrous marine life that they saw. I wondered about the jellyfish in the Arctic and whether they were experiencing the same changes that I had seen in British Columbia. While I searched for a project that would allow me to answer these questions, I came across the Marine Institute of Memorial University. I found my current supervisor Dr. Maxime Geoffroy, who had a project studying Arctic fish and zooplankton ecology with the opportunity to board a research icebreaker; yes - the same ship that I once dreamed about!
Fast forward to 2023, I completed my MSc in Fisheries Science with three trips to the Arctic and even one surprise trip to Antarctica under my belt. With all that time spent at sea, I was no closer to completing my long, ever-growing list of questions. With the help of the Fry Family Foundation during my masters, I was able to continue into a PhD in Fisheries Science with Dr. Geoffroy and develop my new projects around the questions I had about the life and role of jellyfish in the Canadian Arctic. I am currently a second year PhD student with a total of six trips to the Arctic and a grateful recipient of the Fry Family Graduate Student Leadership Award for the second time.
Over my last four years, my focus has always been to find answers to new questions, to make science more accessible, and to give back to the community that helped raise me. For two of those years, I volunteered as the environmental consultant for the Sunshine Coast Grants Committee, where I reviewed grant applications for charitable organisations related to food security, affordable housing, and environmental sustainability. During that time, I was also the Co-Chair for the ‘Marine Institute Graduate Society’, which is a student-led society where my role was to role amplify graduate student voices and concerns within the school, organize social events, and create outreach content for the society (e.g. weekly newsletters and merchandise). Since then, I have been an organizer for ‘Science on the Rock’, a non-profit organization that brings science talks to Quidi Vidi Brewery. Now my biggest communication project has been the launch of the Marine Institute’s podcast ‘WaveCast’. I started this podcast with the communication manager where I interview alumni, staff, and current students about their projects related to the ocean realm. I am proud to say that this podcast has received the Prix d’Excellence for Best Podcast (Bronze) from the Canadian Council for the Advancement of Education (CCAE) and the 2024 Award of Merit for Digital Communication Channel from the International Association of Business Communicators Canada (IABC).
Once I complete my PhD, I hope to become a research scientist with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and continue to do science communication about our polar oceans. My love for jellies can never be replaced, but perhaps I discover a new muse. What I have learned in my quest for answers is that you will never actually have all answers. There will always be stones left unturned, but what is most valuable isn’t the knowledge itself, but the pursuit. There have been many times throughout my academic life where I have felt stuck and without a direction, but then I need to remember to keep moving forward because I’ll surely learn something along the way.
I’ve used the word ‘I’ in a lot of this text, but to make it clear this has most definitely not been an ‘I’ story. It has always been about community. It has been the family and friends who have charged every mountain with me, who have listened to every story about jellyfish no matter how many times I repeat it, and who always created a safe place for me to fall. It has been the instructors that have taught me perseverance, the students that taught me determination, the reviewers on my paper that have taught me patience, and the crew on the ship that have taught me resilience. It has also been the Fry Family Foundation that supported my quest for answers and who made it possible for me to continue with my schooling. From the Fry Family Foundation, I have learned generosity and kindness, and I am forever grateful for their support in my potential. The places where I have been able to go are the product of all of those that have believed in me and who have instilled a confidence in me at times where I couldn’t see it myself. The life that I live is a mosaic of their lessons and everything I know about being a leader has come from them.
Eugenie
My path then led me to the University of British Columbia, where I completed my Bachelor of Science in Oceanography and Biology. I worked in a chemical oceanography lab that visited the Arctic every year. My colleagues recounted stories about their time working on a research icebreaker ship and the wondrous marine life that they saw. I wondered about the jellyfish in the Arctic and whether they were experiencing the same changes that I had seen in British Columbia. While I searched for a project that would allow me to answer these questions, I came across the Marine Institute of Memorial University. I found my current supervisor Dr. Maxime Geoffroy, who had a project studying Arctic fish and zooplankton ecology with the opportunity to board a research icebreaker; yes - the same ship that I once dreamed about!
Fast forward to 2023, I completed my MSc in Fisheries Science with three trips to the Arctic and even one surprise trip to Antarctica under my belt. With all that time spent at sea, I was no closer to completing my long, ever-growing list of questions. With the help of the Fry Family Foundation during my masters, I was able to continue into a PhD in Fisheries Science with Dr. Geoffroy and develop my new projects around the questions I had about the life and role of jellyfish in the Canadian Arctic. I am currently a second year PhD student with a total of six trips to the Arctic and a grateful recipient of the Fry Family Graduate Student Leadership Award for the second time.
Over my last four years, my focus has always been to find answers to new questions, to make science more accessible, and to give back to the community that helped raise me. For two of those years, I volunteered as the environmental consultant for the Sunshine Coast Grants Committee, where I reviewed grant applications for charitable organisations related to food security, affordable housing, and environmental sustainability. During that time, I was also the Co-Chair for the ‘Marine Institute Graduate Society’, which is a student-led society where my role was to role amplify graduate student voices and concerns within the school, organize social events, and create outreach content for the society (e.g. weekly newsletters and merchandise). Since then, I have been an organizer for ‘Science on the Rock’, a non-profit organization that brings science talks to Quidi Vidi Brewery. Now my biggest communication project has been the launch of the Marine Institute’s podcast ‘WaveCast’. I started this podcast with the communication manager where I interview alumni, staff, and current students about their projects related to the ocean realm. I am proud to say that this podcast has received the Prix d’Excellence for Best Podcast (Bronze) from the Canadian Council for the Advancement of Education (CCAE) and the 2024 Award of Merit for Digital Communication Channel from the International Association of Business Communicators Canada (IABC).
Once I complete my PhD, I hope to become a research scientist with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and continue to do science communication about our polar oceans. My love for jellies can never be replaced, but perhaps I discover a new muse. What I have learned in my quest for answers is that you will never actually have all answers. There will always be stones left unturned, but what is most valuable isn’t the knowledge itself, but the pursuit. There have been many times throughout my academic life where I have felt stuck and without a direction, but then I need to remember to keep moving forward because I’ll surely learn something along the way.
I’ve used the word ‘I’ in a lot of this text, but to make it clear this has most definitely not been an ‘I’ story. It has always been about community. It has been the family and friends who have charged every mountain with me, who have listened to every story about jellyfish no matter how many times I repeat it, and who always created a safe place for me to fall. It has been the instructors that have taught me perseverance, the students that taught me determination, the reviewers on my paper that have taught me patience, and the crew on the ship that have taught me resilience. It has also been the Fry Family Foundation that supported my quest for answers and who made it possible for me to continue with my schooling. From the Fry Family Foundation, I have learned generosity and kindness, and I am forever grateful for their support in my potential. The places where I have been able to go are the product of all of those that have believed in me and who have instilled a confidence in me at times where I couldn’t see it myself. The life that I live is a mosaic of their lessons and everything I know about being a leader has come from them.
Eugenie