Belize: Emily Beinert

Program: Ceiba Coral Reef Ecology in Belize, Summer

Emily’s Major: Wildlife Ecology

What is your most memorable experience from your program?

The most memorable experience from my program was during one of our morning snorkel expeditions. We boated out to a patch reef to collect data for our research projects, and on our way back to Middle Caye, we could see dolphins swimming around a different patch reef near us. We stopped the boat and got into the water and the pod of seven dolphins made their way over to investigate us. The dolphins were not intimidated by our presence in the water with them, instead they were curious and kept swimming around and beneath us.

What did you learn about yourself or the world because of your experience?

Because of my experience in Belize, I learned a lot about Belizean culture and social norms. Belize was an extremely welcoming country — everyone we met starting at the airport was so kind and inviting. Everywhere we went in Belize, we were met with smiling, friendly faces and people who wanted to share their incredible country with us. When we went out to eat in Belize City, our walk to the restaurant was full of “Welcome to Belize!” and “Hello, welcome!” sentiments. All of the people we had the pleasure of meeting at Glover’s Reef Research Station were more than willing to share their personal experiences and explain Belizean culture to us, and they were very inquisitive of us and wanted to learn about Wisconsin and UW too. I absolutely loved Belize and I learned that traveling to a new country doesn’t have to be scary or intimidating, especially when all of the people you meet there are excited for you to experience their country.

What is the moment you are most proud of?

A moment from this experience that I am very proud of is when I pushed past my fear to go night-snorkeling. The thought of going out into the ocean in the complete darkness and swimming several meters away from shore was horrifying to me, but I pushed through this fear and decided to try it anyways, and I’m glad I did. The reefs are a totally different place at night — different fish and invertebrates are active at night than during the day. When night-snorkeling, we saw many new reef fish, multiple octopuses hunting, and even a Loggerhead Sea Turtle! I was so glad that I pushed through my fears and was able to experience the ocean at night, my parents could hardly believe when I told them I did it!