Class Of 2026

Hi! My name is Rachel Choo and I am a junior majoring in Behavioral Biology on the Pre-Vet track. When I heard about the Behavioral Biology program in high school, I knew I had to apply to Hopkins because of the Animal Behavior courses taught by Dr. Bohn and the Galapagos study abroad opportunity seemed so interesting to me. Once I was actually at Hopkins, I was amazed by the countless opportunities and got started with research/extracurriculars right away!

Since spring of my freshman year, I reached out to a lab at the medical campus and began learning how to analyze behavior of primates in captivity, especially those used in biomedical research. I expanded my skills for about a year and applied to the David S. Olton research award from our Behavioral Biology department my sophomore year! I was gratefully accepted and used this grant to stay in Baltimore this past summer to study marmoset vocal communication. I was able to present this research “Effects of Affiliative Call Playback on Captive Marmoset Social Behavior” at JHU’s DREAMS undergraduate research symposium for the first time last week and it was an incredible learning experience to be able to receive new ideas and questions from a broad audience. I’m also very excited to share that I will be going to Utila Island with Dr. Bohn and a few other classmates during intersession to do field research on endemic species! This will be my first study abroad experience that could not have been funded without the help of our Behavioral Biology department. More on Utila Island later 🙂 

Besides research, I am also the event coordinator on the Behavioral Biology steering committee, so I help plan events for our major! We host events like Welcome Back BBQ, Bird Watching, Guest Speaker, Aquarium/Zoo trip, and other casual events like movie night as well! Definitely stay tuned for exciting events we have planned for the rest of the year! 

The Behavioral Biology major is such a unique field to study, especially at Hopkins where there are so many resources to help us find our passion. I encourage all our freshmen and newly declared BB majors to really step out of your comfort zone to reach out to professors, participate in class, and engage in events so you can truly embrace your passions! 

I’m always eager to get to know more students in our major, so please don’t hesitate to reach out to me ([email protected]) if you have any questions about my research, Pre-Vet, or the major!