Rachel Kefalos has had an interesting adventure getting to the University of South Carolina and the Marine Science program in the College of Arts and Sciences. She originally attended Skidmore College in New York after growing up in Charleston, SC, with her parents, Roberta Sokolitz and George Kefalos. But after a year and a half in New York, she decided she needed to do something different. Different indeed. She took some time off to get involved in the SEA (Sea Education Association) program at Woods Hole, Massachusetts, where she spent six weeks at the labs and then six weeks on a schooner between Hawaii and the Palmyra Atoll with the Nature Conservancy.

After these experiences, Rachel found what she wanted to do and immediately began considering marine science programs at many universities throughout the country. She chose the highly rated University of South Carolina Marine Science program and also applied to the Honors College. After she was accepted, she asked to be deferred for a year so she could continue to work as a volunteer for the Nature Conservancy in Hawaii and with the US Fish and Wildlife Services on Oahu. Many of the islands in the Hawaiian Island chain are protected and subject to restrictions in what can be shipped to the scientists that study them. Rachel worked on packing and sterilizing provisions for all trips to Laysan Island, which involved 6-month stays on the island for the investigators and technicians. She also traveled to Palmyra to build houses and a laboratory for the research station on the island. She worked with a Ph.D. student in botany on the effect of rats (introduced by the US Navy in World War II) on native vegetation.

In January 2005, Rachel started her studies at USC. In addition to doing exceptionally well academically, she has worked with Dr. John Nelson in the University of South Carolina Herbarium, and with Dr. Robert Feller on the ecology of snails in South Carolina salt marshes. Her work on the ecology of snails was presented at USC Discovery Day in 2006 and at the Southeastern Estuarine Research Society symposium in St. Augustine, Florida. Even more interestingly, she is writing a travel guide on the natural history of South Carolina flora and fauna with Prof. Rudy Mancke as part of her senior honors thesis.

The travel guide is written for students coming to South Carolina seeking a "sense of place" and represents another side of Rachel's personality: her willingness to engage and help others in what she loves best. She is the social coordinator for the Marine Science undergraduate society, SEAS (Students Engaged in Aquatic Sciences) and through it, serves as an after-school counselor for the Irmo-Chapin Recreation Commission. What is the next step in Rachel's adventure? She thinks she will probably take some time off after graduation in May 2007 to consider her options with US Fish and Wildlife or the Nature Conservancy and prepare for graduate school. Whatever she chooses beyond her undergraduate career, Rachel Kefalos has left her footprint on life at the University. We are proud to name her our student of the month for January 2007.

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