Lake Life, Ocean Experience Mark BVU Memories for Biology Major
Senior Tonia Henning enjoyed many facets of the lakeside campus during her four years at BVU. From enhancing her biology research, to an avenue for relaxation, Storm Lake offered it all.
Storm Lake helped attract Tonia Henning to Buena Vista University four years ago. As a person seeking a career working with water and marine lifeforms, having a lake mere feet from campus presented the perfect laboratory and more.
“It was a safe haven for me,” says Henning, a biology major from Burke, S.D. “Whenever I felt stressed in any way, I would just go take a walk by the lake to calm myself.”
Henning’s research work at BVU helped provide a foundation for an internship experience at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute at Florida Atlantic University last summer. Henning used the experience to research how sea cucumbers, which are used for both medicinal and culinary purposes in Asian cultures, might thrive in controlled conditions.
“The Science building was one of the best things about BVU—the opportunity to take care of various animals and be in charge of their maintenance.”
Tonia Henning
The work put Henning on the Atlantic Ocean. She also harvested seaweed and experienced hurricane season in “The Sunshine State.”
As she prepares to graduate, Henning examines job possibilities in Iowa as she anticipates taking a gap year until enrolling in graduate school. She says she’ll miss much about BVU.
“When it comes to BVU, I think I would miss the science building, including all the animals I got to work with,” she says. “It was one of the best things about BVU—the opportunity to take care of various animals and be in charge of their maintenance. It taught me a lot with working with other people’s preferences and work schedules, while also learning more about the responsibilities of taking care of many types of animals.”
Henning will also miss the friends she made in BVU’s Anime and Gaming Society (AGS). “I was a part of the club’s executive board and I will definitely miss them all,” she says. “It was one of the highlights of my week when I could host an event and bring people together to bond and enjoy themselves. It made me extremely happy to know that I could do something like that."