Fall 2021 Graduation Graduate Valedictory Speaker Announced

Elsa Saskia van Hall (Master of Science in Marine Science ‘21) will represent the graduate students of the Fall Class of 2021 as the valedictory speaker. She will deliver her address at the Saturday, December 11 graduation ceremony. 

Growing up in the landlocked mountains of Colorado did not stop van Hall from developing a deep curiosity to study marine species. After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Biology, van Hall worked as the head of the nursery at an oyster farm in Maryland. She then moved to Vietnam, where she taught English and discovered how thoroughly she enjoyed teaching. She enrolled in Hawaiʻi Pacific University’s Master of Science in Marine Science program, where she researched how climate change will impact an ecologically and economically important Hawaiian surgeonfish. Following graduation, van Hall hopes to teach as an adjunct faculty member and obtain a doctorate in Marine Science to further research climate change effects on tropical coral reef ecosystems and pursue marine conservation.