Growing up in Marlton, New Jersey, University of Delaware student Laura Dailey remembers being drawn to storms from a young age. With her face pressed up against the glass windows of her parents’ house, she would watch excitedly as lightning struck and thunder boomed as storms passed by. She would even tune in to the local television networks to try to forecast the weather with her local broadcast meteorologist, while dreaming of one day working with the weather.

Now, as a senior honors student majoring in meteorology and climate science in UD’s College of Earth, Ocean and Environment, with minors in journalism and geography — as well as a recently earned geographic information systems certificate — Dailey is one step closer to making that dream a reality. 

Having grown more familiar with the field of meteorology during her time at UD, Dailey said she can envision herself working in many different fields within the concentration. 

“There are so many possibilities in meteorology and every field excites me,” Dailey said. “Whether that is doing research, being a scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), being a broadcast meteorologist, or just working in forecasting in general — anything of that nature excites me.” 

Dailey’s plan is to go to graduate school to expand her knowledge and explore her future career path. She has always enjoyed forecasting the weather, and with the impacts of climate change becoming more of a reality to many across the world, she is also interested in climate policy and climate communications. 

“I think communities need to be more aware of what climate change means for them and for the whole world. A lot of people distance themselves from the problem and don’t think that they are in an area of concern, so they don't think it is important to act,” Dailey said. “Making climate information available to all people in a way that they understand the crisis and care enough to act can help prevent the extreme risks of climate change from occurring either more frequently or more intensely in their area.” 

When she started taking her meteorology classes at UD, Dailey fell even more in love with the discipline. With smaller class sizes, she was able to make great connections with her professors and fellow classmates. She singled out Dan Leathers, professor and the director of meteorology and climate science at UD, for helping her understand the meteorologic material in a way that was exciting, saying that he “was a great teacher, really cared about his students and wanted them to do well and understand the material.”