Next Generation
The importance of finding your “why” as a young researcher
Emily De Sousa
W
Graduate Researcher and Travel Writer
hen I first became involved in seafood and fisheries work, I read every book, journal article, and report that I could find. I wanted to know everything, so that I could use facts and data to back up my arguments. What I learned however, was that no matter how convincing or reputable the facts were, people don’t respond to numbers and statistics. This is true with anything, but even more so with seafood. If you’re not near an ocean, seafood is not usually top of mind. I could scream facts at people until I was blue in the face, but it wouldn’t make a difference. Without a personal relationship to seafood, people remained disconnected and uninspired to change.
It wasn’t until late into my undergraduate degree that I realized that my approach to changing the seafood policy landscape was all wrong. I was explaining to a colleague what I hoped my graduate research would focus on: restructuring seafood value chains, supporting more transparency in the industry, and getting people to consume more locally-source seafood. This simple question changed everything about the way I approach research and science policy: “How did you get into that?”. I proceeded to share the story of my upbringing. I was raised by two Azorean parents in a large, Portuguese family that centered gatherings around seafood. I explained the cultural significance of seafood products to my family and the economic significance of seafood
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