Zariel Zamudio, University of Washington biological oceanography student, is impacting both her field of study and her campus.
She balances her academic pursuits with a deep commitment to fostering a supportive faith community. Upon starting at UW for the 2023–2024 school year, Zamudio began attending a local Adventist church where she found herself helping establish an Adventist Christian Fellowship club on campus.
Zamudio was introduced to a group of UW students at the church who welcomed her into their community. Through them, she met John Leis, Washington Conference public campus ministries director. Leis, who is dedicated to assisting students in any way possible, became a mentor to her and others.
After asking for a ride to the dentist, Zamudio was curious about Leis’ role and how he was able to devote so much time to helping students. Leis explained his work as a campus ministries leader and introduced her to the mission of ACF.
Zamudio became actively involved in founding an ACF club, which officially launched in September 2024 during UW’s Dawg Daze — a time for clubs to introduce themselves and connect with students.
As ACF’s first student president, Zamudio leads worship services, hosts Bible studies at her home and engages socially with students to build a community where they can depend on each other and deepen their faith.
Zamudio’s passion for community building extends beyond her religious activities. During the 2023–2024 school year, she worked in an oceanography lab on UW’s campus. While there, she learned about Washington NASA Space Grant Consortium's Summer Undergraduate Research Program. Zamudio sent in an application and the lab requested the program hire her. She was accepted into the internship.
During the internship, Zamudio collaborated with a graduate student who had cultivated two unique isolates of prochlorococcus from the Oxygen Deficient Zone off the coast of Mexico. Together, they grew the isolates under high light levels and compared them to other known isolates of picocyanobacteria. The results challenged the current theory of the evolutionary process for the picocyanobacteria phylum of prochlorococcus.
After presenting her research at the SURP symposium, Zamudio participated in another project called VISIONS’24 where she worked aboard a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration research vessel 300 miles offshore. Zamudio is continuing her studies in biological oceanography while also following the example set by her mother, Blanca Oritz, by volunteering at the UW food pantry. She looks forward to building ACF into a successful and supportive community.
You can learn more about Zamudio’s experience during her summer internship at nwadvent.st/sfc4y.
Zamudio measures light levels in the artificial daylight cycle room with a light wand.
Zamudio disposes of a water sample from a CTD water sampler aboard the Atlantis on the VISIONS'24 expedition after successful oxygen sampling.
Zamudio transfers cultured isolates into new tubes with a pipette for the growth rate experiment on the unique prochlorococcus isolates.
Zamudio presents her research at the SURP symposium.
