Picayune native Marthonette Aguilar landed two job offers in one day at a recent invitational job fair, contributing to the growing success of The University of Southern Mississippi’s (USM) School of Ocean Science and Engineering (SOSE) program. Aguilar is a 2024 USM graduate with an extensive passion for hydrography and ocean engineering (OE).

Our first encounters with living things in our lives started with Mom or Dad telling us what it was called – its common name. And for me, those are the ones that I remember best. But, for other folks, those names may not be the same as mine. The shrub I call Mamou is Coral Bean to others. Same plant, with one scientific name, Erythrina herbacea

Five years have passed since the grass covered lot in Moss Point began its journey toward restoration to a mature natural wetland. To look at it now, it can appear to untrained eyes to be a mess – a tangled thicket of weeds and shrubs that, well, looks messy. Let me tell you why it is not and what it will look like as it continues its journey to a mature Bayhead Swamp that it is meant to be.

For many of us, an unhurried walk in nature is medicine for the mind and soul. Whether strolling through a local park or a nature trail, the sights and sounds can provide a respite for life’s stresses. There is always something new to discover, even on a trail or path that we have walked a hundred times.