Introduction! Hi !

Hi everyone,

my name is Jaheili (Jai). I’m 19 years old and an online student at UAF currently living in Houston. I’m in my second year pursuing a degree in Biological Sciences. Some things about me are that I love reading, and have recently gotten into audiobooks! I’m also a fan of podcasts, especially true crime but I’ve found some science podcasts lately that are very informative and interesting. I own 3 dogs but currently have 4 as we have a rescue with us right now! I love being outside and in nature and I wish I could do it more often. I hope to get into hiking as well as foraging. I’ve never been hunting but do enjoy archery recreationally and would like to do it more often as well. As for gardening, it has never been my strong suit but I’ve been learning and doing better, I’d like to keep working on it and hope to have my own herb garden as well as some veggies. I had never considered botany as an interest until I started at UAF and I’m so glad I did. Since I was little, I had always loved collecting plants and leaves and flowers and learning about them, especially edible and medicinal plants and researching about plant identification. It’s been one year since I truly started my botanical journey and took my first ethnobotany course, EBOT 100, and even though I have much to learn I’m very passionate about the details and information. Some of my favorite plants are the Chinese Blue Wisteria tree and also the group of trees known as Weeping Willows. I also love pines and spruces, something you don’t see or get to appreciate too often here. I also love the groups of plants; water lilies, and jasmine. I hope to be able to tell the individual species of my favorite groups apart one day. I had a USB microscope and am looking for it now because I have no idea where it is. If I can’t find it I will be using my phone for the coursework.

I’m looking forward to learning with you all this summer! 😀

Buddy