Start Here. Stay Here. Go Anywhere: From Charleston to Galveston and Back Again
Jenna Koch ’26 is excited to return home to South Carolina and continue her academic journey.
It has been said that you cannot go home again. For Texas A&M University at Galveston 2026 graduate Jenna Koch, heading closer to home in Charleston, South Carolina, after graduating from Texas A&M University at Galveston with a double major in marine biology and marine sciences, and minors in oceanography and coastal environmental science and society, sounds just about perfect.
“I grew up a military brat, so I moved around a lot, but I am originally from Charleston, South Carolina, and I’m hopefully going to be back in the area pretty soon. So, I am very excited,” Koch said.
Koch’s return to familiar surroundings includes continuing academic studies at Coastal Carolina University in Conway, South Carolina, in pursuit of a master’s degree in Coastal Marina Wetland Studies with a focus on anthropogenic effects of marine ecosystems and estuarine ecology studies.
“Conway is about two and a half hours away from Charleston,” Koch said. “So, I’ll be two and a half hours away from my family again instead of 18 hours away. It’ll be really nice to go home on the weekends and see my family and go back to my hometown a little bit more.”
While Koch is eager to return to family in South Carolina, being an Aggie is also a family tradition.
“My mom was an Aggie,” Koch said. “She went to College Station, and I grew up going to College Station. I grew up going to games. I loved it, but I realized it was a little too big. So, I did not want to go to a campus that had 80,000 people in an area. In 2020, I found the Galveston campus, and I participated in Sea Camp. I loved Sea Camp. I loved everything about the Marine Biology program, and I told my mom I didn’t want to go anywhere else.”
With graduation approaching and sights set on going to Coastal Carolina, Koch is leaving with many fond memories of time spent as a student at Texas A&M University at Galveston.
“I would say for me, student leadership was a big highlight of my time at TAMUG,” Koch Said. “Being involved in so many different student organizations like SALT Camp, and the Student Government Association, Traditions Council, just being able to be a very prominent voice on campus was definitely a highlight, but also engaging with my peers on a more personal level outside of the classroom. So, going to Midnight Yell or going to Midnight Breakfast, and just going to a bunch of events on campus. Those were definitely some of my highlights that I loved here.”
Equipped with the hindsight of four years of college experience, Koch has some advice for future Aggies.
“Never be afraid to be yourself, even if it’s a room that you’re uncomfortable walking into,” Koch said. “If you go in and you give yourself confidence, then you’ll feel much better about the outcome when you walk away from it. I know there’s plenty of times where I walked in and I was very nervous, and I didn’t know people, but if I gave myself a little bit of confidence and I said, ‘Hey, it’s okay, just do you’ then I felt much better.”
