Zachary grew up visiting natural spaces such as Lake Tahoe and the Grand Canyon and knew he wanted to be involved in nature with his career. This and his high school AP Environmental Science course spurred him to choose Earth System Science as his major at UC Merced. This was further reinforced at UC Merced when joining the Yosemite Leadership Program (YLP) where he visited Yosemite and learned how to be an environmental steward with his cohort.From here he began to take courses that furthered his interest, such as Fundamentals of Ecology and Fundamentals of Soil Science. In addition, he worked at the UCM Wilderness Education Center as a Yosemite Ranger leading student trips and presenting about ecology. Throughout his undergraduate career he was also involved in research ranging from conifer ecology to agricultural soil sciences, pushing him towards graduate school to continue research.His Fundamentals of Soil Science and Sustainable Agroecology courses pushed him to be involved in soil science, which will be a focus of his PhD program in the fall of 2020 at UC Merced.
