Darby Finnegan

Before coming to Western, Darby already had a strong love for the ocean and its creatures. She volunteered with the Puget Sound Restoration Fund in Mukilteo, exposing herself to a marine research lab, and was a Hutton Scholar in the American Fisheries Society where she worked on restoration projects in her hometown with the Nez Perce’s Department of Fisheries Resource Management. While at Western, Darby's love for the Pacific Northwest's coastal ecosystems evolved in Surfrider, participating in beach cleanups and advocating for healthier oceans. Her freshman year, she participated in the 2016 Marine Science Scholars Program, and did an independent research project about rainbow trout at Shannon Point Marine Center. Darby went on the following summer to participate in the Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program at Friday Harbor Laboratories through the University of Washington as part of the National Science Foundation. Her interest in fish and their movements ultimately lead to her selection for the Undergraduate Research Apprenticeship Program (RAP) at the Patek Laboratory of Duke University to study biomechanics. She then interned in the biology lab here at Western, preparing sampling kits for “The Living Snow Project,” which helps scientists collect and store snow algae to analyze later, and also helped Western graduate students make settlement crates for pinto abalone larvae. Darby then earned the Goldwater Scholarship, the first recipient for WWU in more than a decade. She did research in Alaska at the Prince William Sound Science Center for two summers, before winning a Fulbright her senior year, traveling to Sweden this time.