Biology grad student earns second degree at CSUB

Jacob Spriester graduates this month with master’s degree

By California State University, Bakersfield

December 13^th, 2021

Sometimes all it takes for a student to realize their potential is a friendly nudge from a professor who knows what the student is capable of even better than the student does himself. For Jacob Spriester, a conversation as an undergraduate student with one of his favorite professors was just what he needed to take the leap toward graduate school.

Now, he’s graduating from California State University, Bakersfield with his master’s degree in biology, about two years after earning his bachelor’s degree in the same subject. After six years in the university’s School of Natural Sciences, Mathematics and Engineering, Spriester’s time on campus will soon come to an end, two degrees later.

“I’ve spent so much time here and had such a great time and now it’s going to be weird not going to campus, but I can’t wait to walk the stage again,” said Spriester, who will take part in the commencement ceremony on Dec. 16.

The decision to remain a CSUB student after earning his undergraduate degree came about in part thanks to a conversation with biology professor Dr. Maynard Moe, who taught Spriester’s plant diversity class. It was the last semester before he graduated, and he wasn’t sure what was next.

“Dr. Moe asked me, ‘What do you plan to do after this?’” Spriester, 24, recalled, adding that he told him he would probably continue working, maybe doing the biological consulting he had done in the previous summers. “He mentioned that he had brought me up to Dr. Pratt because he was looking for another master’s student, so Dr. Pratt and I started talking, and then before I knew it, I was like, ‘Oh, OK, I guess I’m doing a master’s!’”

Spriester was interested in the research Dr. Brandon Pratt, another professor in CSUB’s biology department, was doing on plant roots. His own research in Dr. Pratt’s lab has looked at the rooting depth of plants as an explanation to why some plants have died in recent droughts. Spriester’s work has used isotopes — different versions of elements that have the same atomic number but a different number of neutrons — to look where plants are getting their water.

This work has not only allowed Spriester to continue his biology education but to put his minor in geology to use too. An undergraduate geochemistry class taught him about isotopes and other geology classes taught him about types and textures of soil.

“I’m a biology master’s student so mostly what I look at is biological things, but the geology side of things does come into play when I’m thinking about soils,” Spriester said. “Isotopes are probably a bigger part of geology than they are of biology, so a lot of what I knew about isotopes was from chemistry classes or geology classes.”

Dr. Pratt was happy to have Spriester in his lab and was impressed not only by his work but by his character too.

“Jacob was a model graduate student,” Dr. Pratt said. “He is smart and hardworking, and with those two attributes there’s not too much in life you can’t conquer. He blazed through his M.S. work and collected a trove of interesting and important data along the way. He has tremendous writing and speaking skills that served him well in graduate school.”

Biology grad student earns second degree at CSUB

Though Spriester might have needed a little encouragement to pursue graduate school, it was perhaps a natural step for him. His interest in science goes back to when he was a kid, conducting small-scale experiments at home.

“I had those little kits and science projects when I was younger,” he said. “Biology in particular has always been really interesting for me, because I really love being out in nature and seeing animals and plants. In school, I always did really well in science classes and I always really enjoyed them, so I was naturally attracted to that. It’s been a lifelong love.”

Though born in Hanford, Spriester has spent the majority of his life here in Bakersfield, graduating from Frontier High School and heading to CSUB right after. As an undergraduate, Spriester originally was a natural sciences major with a goal of becoming a teacher, but he ended up becoming more interested in biology specifically. Realizing he could still become a teacher with a biology degree, he decided to switch majors. The geology classes he had already taken helped him earn a minor in that subject.

By the end of Spriester’s freshman year, he began to realize the scope of CSUB’s research, joining biology professor Dr. Jeroen Gillard to help his work on diatoms, a single-celled algae.

“When I was in high school and I thought of research, I thought of some doctors in white coats doing experiments in labs with big flasks,” Spriester said. “I never would have thought at a smaller CSU I would have the opportunity to actually do research.”

Now as a graduate student, Spriester has fully become part of CSUB’s research team. In addition to his own research in Dr. Pratt’s lab, he has also taught his own lab session and served as a mentor in the first Summer Undergraduate Research Experience program this summer. Earlier this year, he competed in the inaugural California State University Grad Slam Competition, one of two students representing CSUB at San Jose State.

Spriester’s time as a graduate student has been sponsored by the Center for Research Excellence in Science and Technology (or CREST), which has received funding from the National Science Foundation. CREST research specifically focuses on climate science and the center is comprised of biologists, engineers, geologists and statisticians.

“I just think it’s a great way to connect with other students, connect with professors and get this interdisciplinary experience for a lot of graduate students,” Spriester said of CREST. “It really helped me develop as a scientist and a public speaker and a researcher.”

While Spriester has been working hard toward his master’s degree, he has also had to deal with the upheaval of his studies caused by COVID. When the campus transitioned to virtual learning, Spriester had one and a half semesters of the program done and was already making plans to conduct research in the Lake Isabella area. With any kind of travel being canceled, he had to adapt his research, and luckily found a way to do his work at the Environmental Studies Area on campus, where there is a plot of native shrubs that Dr. Pratt said was ideal for Spriester’s work.

“COVID upended Jacob’s original research plans but he didn’t let COVID get in his way for long,” Dr. Pratt said. “It turned out to be a blessing in disguise because it allowed Jacob a more controlled environment to do some things that would have been virtually impossible in the mountains where he originally planned to work. I am inspired by the many CSUB students, including Jacob, that have persevered during the COVID era.”

With his six years at CSUB coming to a close, Spriester is looking toward the future. He plans to stay in the Bakersfield area, where his fiancée is working on her own master’s degree in educational counseling. He’s not sure yet where his journey will take him next but hopes to teach at a community college or work for a national park. He’s not ruling out furthering his education but knows he at least wants to get some more work experience first.

“It’s a little hard to believe it’s over,” Spriester said of his time at CSUB. “I don’t feel like it’s hit me yet, but it will be quite a change.”

For those just starting out in a master’s program in a scientific field, Spriester encourages determination and believing in yourself.

“Science is so hard and so many people have this imposter syndrome like they’re not good enough and they can’t do this, but I think if people try their hardest and push through, everyone is capable of a lot more than they think they are,” he said. “I know I didn’t think I would be finishing up a master’s program a few years ago. I didn’t think it would have been a reality for me, but I was able to persevere and get through it.”