Stanford University will be Charlene Felton's home

Intermountain Catholic

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Charlene Felton's love for the sea and its creatures will take her to Stanford University where she will study marine biology. She has been an honors student at Hillcrest High School. IC photo by Barbara S. Lee

SALT LAKE CITY — Charlene A. Felton is following in her parents footsteps. Her father, Steven Felton, and her mother, Martha, met in the microbiology department of the university they attended. Charlene, a graduate of Hillcrest High School, will be studying biology, but she’s chosen marine biology, and will go to Stanford University, with one of the best marine biology departments in the nation.

"The other academic classes I will be taking at Stanford seem like a good fit, too," Felton told the Intermountain Catholic.

A member of Blessed Sacrament Parish, Felton said she’s been fascinated with water since her family went on a vacation to Monterey Bay when she was 10 years old. They visited the aquarium and the kelp forest and Charlene was hooked.

"We saw the sea otters on the bay, and I decided that’s where I wanted to be. Stanford University is very close-by. It’s a perfect location."

Felton has no misgivings about the cost of a Stanford education. "I’ll probably get a job on campus, maybe doing research. Maybe I can get a job at the aquarium."

Felton isn’t the least bit fazed about moving from a land-locked state to the western coast. Studying marine biology has been her goal, and she’s focused on it since elementary school. Being focused has resulted in her good grades and her participation in the International Baccalaureate Program. She has excelled in English, history, science, and language, and has taken honors classes in biology and chemistry that have gone beyond the advanced placement classes.

Her science studies have already allowed her to amass 60 lab hours for each collaborative project, including one project that had her studying the effects on brine shrimp of household chemicals.

Felton’s desire to study marine biology is fueled by her concern for the future.

"More and more, global warming is affecting us all," she said. "I’m concerned about how global warming affects the biosphere. That’s why I want to stay in research. I hope to make it my life’s work, or be a professor and teach others how to do research."

Felton began courses in advanced learning at Alta View Elementary School. She’s been a member of Hillcrest High School’s science club, "and I’ve learned a lot from my parents," she said. "Both of my parents have Ph.d’s in microbiology, and I’ve been around science a lot."

Her love of research, she hopes, will get her out in the field or the ocean. "I don’t want to sit in a lab all day staring into a microscope."

She said she will be taking some classes in microbiology because she has to have a basic understanding of the subject before if she’s going into marine biology.

"I will begin with a biology major, then I hope to move on to honors biology, then concentrate on marine biology. I don’t want to waste any time at Stanford, and I want to get everything our of it I can."

She said the general department requirements include four years of study for a Bachelor’s degree.

"I know one student from last year who is at Stanford, and three boys from this class and one young man I met at a science fair.

Felton also participates in a program at Hillcrest that emphasizes creativity, action, and service. She’s taken ballroom dancing and made some pieces of jewelry, one of which she wears all the time – a cast metal pendant of dolphins. "I love the sea, but I also enjoy history, English, and statistics."