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For Ryan Horner '15, every writing session starts by lighting a candle.

Horner says he writes five or six days a week for as much as two hours at a time. The more he can write, the more quickly his pieces develop.

'Whatever sticks in your head might become an idea or line in the story,' he says.

The idea for his short story, 'It Came Under Some Duress,' hit him during finals week.

Horner is a member of the Little Giant cross country and track teams.

Horner is holding one of his character sketch books.

'I’ve always been a reader, but a writer? Not so often,' Horner says. 'Ive written for the last seven or eight years in a kind of constructive manner with goals in the last two.'

Horner has applications ready for 13 graduate programs.

Horner holds one of his character sketches, indicating some of the links between them.

While Horner does all of his writing on computer, he does his character sketches on paper.

'In the end, I'm thankful to have written over break and to have worked diligently on a piece over break.'

Horner says the first hour of working on a story is his favorite. 'That’s the time when it seems easiest. I’m not actually producing good stuff in the first hour, but that’s when I’m most excited about it and it’s taking 10 different turns in my head.'

Travis Flock '16 assists with the tagging of a blue catfish.

He served an internship with the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in Chesapeake Bay.

His SERC internship was his introduction to field work.

Flock has worked in labs on campus assisting Professor Bradley Carlson with research on scorpions.

Remembering the moment where he found that one fish that had moved to all of our receivers except one, Flock said, 'That lab moment overshadowed the field work because for me it was a big result...Immediate justification.'

Here Flock presents preliminary results to Professor Wally Novak during a poster session in October.

'Processing the data was really interesting,' Flock said of his analysis.

'Writing,' Flock laughed, 'that is the tough part. It’s much easier to do the data.'

'It’s nice to know the experience was enjoyanble –- form the field work to the lab work to the data processing,' Flock explained.

'A good presentation is about keeping their interest and letting them know what you found,' said Flock.

Flock found field work to be to his liking. Here he pilots a boat during his internship.

Flock pictured with a Horseshoe Crab, which is a prehistoric arachnid and the precursor to modern-day crustaceans.