Paige Campbell, 19, was born in the landlocked town of Stanberry, Mo., where she’s hundreds of miles away from being able to pursue her passion of marine biology.

Sharon Oldham, Paige’s grandmother, settled down with her husband in Stanberry over 40 years ago and never left. The year before Paige was born, her mother built a house on the same plot of land, steps away from Paige’s grandmother’s. Paige considers her grandmother to be the one who raised her, as her parents were often away working long hours.

Paige is a first generation college student studying marine biology at Northwest Missouri State in Maryville, Mo. She is one of the few in Stanberry who have pursued higher education. “Most went into trade school or the work force,” Paige said of the other 25 students in her high school graduating class.

She credits childhood snorkeling trips to places like Mexico and the Dominican Republic with igniting her love for sharks. She also says her parents are the ones who encouraged her to go to college.

Paige spends her days driving roughly 40 minutes into Maryville, (where getting stuck behind a horse and buggy is not unheard of), going to three-hour chemistry labs and working as a dietary aide at a nursing home. In her little downtime, she takes care of her rescue animals, hikes on her family’s federally protected land and visits her boyfriend after his 911-dispatch overnight shifts.

After graduating, Paige dreams of a life bigger than hers now, which includes moving to Alaska with her boyfriend to pursue her passion for marine biology, even if that means leaving life on her close-knit family and farm behind.