Horizons Fall 2015

38 NSU HORIZONS lthough Lauren Alfino grew up in Colorado, she has loved the ocean since she was a child. “My grandparents took me to an aquarium when I was six years old and I got to touch dolphins,” she said. “I just started falling in love with the ocean, and the older I got, the more amazed I was by it,” said Alfino, a marine biology major in NSU’s Halmos College of Natural Sciences and Oceanography. It was that love of the ocean—and a life-changing event—that lead Alfino to choose NSU. Originally, she had planned to attend college in Colorado with the goal of becoming a veterinar- ian. This changed when she was diag- nosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma during her junior year of high school. Having cancer helped her to focus on what she loved, she said, and, while recovering from chemotherapy during her senior year, she decided to start anew. “Once I got diagnosed with cancer, I really wanted to follow something that I loved, and I had always loved the ocean, and I decided ‘You only live once, and you might as well do what you love,’ ” Alfino said. Her plan to become a marine animal veterinarian led her to look at colleges in Florida and California. Although she was offered scholarships that would cover tuition at Florida Institute of Technology, she chose NSU because she believed it offered her more opportunities to study the oceans. “I liked the people at NSU. I felt NSU would be my home. I fell in love with the shark mural in the Don Taft University Center. I fell in love with the programs offered,” said Alfino, 19. “To me, NSU seemed like the most logical choice.” Now a sophomore, Alfino’s dream is supported by the Charles W. Daniels Endowed Scholarship. Alfino is the first recipient of this scholarship, funded by the Lafferty Family Foundation. She expressed her gratitude for the scholarship as the only student to speak during the naming ceremony for NSU’s Robert S. Lafferty, Sr., Central Energy Plant. (See story on page 7.) But she said she doesn’t think she can ever thank them enough. “They’re absolutely amazing people,” Alfino said, again expressing her appreciation. Another part of Alfino’s fresh start was trying a new sport. A swimmer since childhood, she tore her rotator cuff before starting college, making her rethink her desire to join NSU’s swimming and diving team. Instead, she found another home with NSU’s award-winning rowing team. “You can’t just purely muscle your way through it; you have to have technique, and you have to be relaxed, and you have to trust the other women on your team,” Alfino said of rowing. Alfino now has a rowing scholarship and is looking forward to being a leader on the team this year. “I want to be more of Student’s Love of the Ocean Led to NSU BY KEREN MOROS Marine biology major Lauren Alfino, left, discusses ocean life with her professor, Emily Schmitt Lavin, interim biology department chair in the Halmos College of Natural Sciences and Oceanography. A