Since 1978, more than 300 students have set aside four summer weeks to participate in Wittenberg’s intensive marine biology program on the sun-soaked beaches of the Bahamas. Working side by side with their professors, these adventurous students have sought to understand the complexities of marine life on a natural stage.

Together, they witnessed the impact environmental recklessness has on the San Salvador Island landscape and the sea that surrounds it. They touched the aquatic organisms that textbooks and academic journals could only convey in words and pictures. In the process, the students gained a professional confidence reflective of that found at leading scientific institutions across the country. They also discovered more about themselves through the experience, an experience that changed at least one Wittenberg student forever.

Now as the program celebrates its 25-year anniversary, Wittenberg Magazine takes a closer look at the program — the people who created it , the research being conducted and the difference it has made in the lives of those students who once called the Bahamian coast home.