Can you imagine spending six weeks SCUBA diving off the coast of California for your Honours degree? Well, that’s what Kate Holland did as she completed her Bachelor of Global & Ocean Sciences (Honours). "I spent six weeks in South California in the Catalina Islands, just off LA," Kate said. "My research was looking at how foraminifera, which is a type of plankton, react to the ocean chemistry in the area. We could then use that data to look at past forams and make inferences about the past ocean conditions."

"At the island we were on, the continental shelf drops off rapidly. You travel a kilometre and then you are in deep water where these forams live. Then you come back and right on the shore and there’s a science lab that you can experiment in. It was perfect for my study."

Kate’s research in forams comes after spending her degree studying a diverse array of science. "I really like the flexibility of the degree. In the first year you dabble in everything. You do maths, physics, chemistry, biology, geology and earth science and then you can specialise. I think it’s so cool because the degree uses everything; lots of science comes together."