It's hard to pin down how 17-year-old Tia Bakker fell in love with the ocean, since she's been a resident of landlocked Montana for her whole life. But the rising senior at Bigfork High School can't remember a time that she didn't want to be a marine biologist.

"I went to Oregon when I was nine and was just fascinated by the ocean," she said.

It also didn't hurt that Bakker, who is a licensed scuba diver, got to dive in Australia's Great Barrier Reef when she spent a few weeks in the country as part of the People to People program at age 14.

So it was something of a shock when an unlikely chain of events culminated with an offer for Bakker to spend the summer as a research assistant at PISCO Intertidal Field Station at the University of California at Santa Barbara.

"I was blown away because I have no experience with salt water," Bakker said.

Bakker had the opportunity to chat with Chris Gotschalk, a Bigfork native who has worked for more than a decade as a marine biologist and graduated from UCSB to feel out how good a fit the career field might be. That talk only heightened her enthusiasm for her desired line of work and was so impressive that Gotschalk put her in touch with the school.

The only hitch in the process is that while the time and expertise of the school's staff are being offered free of charge, there is no money for lodging in the posh beachside community or travel to and from Santa Barbara. She is scheduled to head to the coast sometime the second week of July and return before school starts in late August and is still looking for any donations the community would be willing to give to help make her trip a reality.

Bakker said she was shocked when, only a day or two after receiving the offer, Bigfork School District Superintendent Russ Kinzer presented her with a check for $800 from an anonymous donor to cover the airfare.

"It was so generous," Bakker said. "I'm really thankful."

But if any student was deserving of the assistance, it's Bakker, whose many accomplishments were well-chronicled in a letter to the district from biology and geology teacher Hans Bodenhamer.

"Her work in both classes is of the highest caliber and her zeal for learning is infectious," Bodenhamer wrote. "As a high school teacher with 15 years experience… I can think of no other student more deserving of this honor than Tia."

Beyond the classroom Bodenhamer and Bakker have spent plenty of time together, as she is a member of the BHS cave club, which Bodenhamer runs. The club explores, maps and cleans up caves around the area, even going so far as to map and prepare lengthy reports for the National Parks Service about some sites in Glacier National Park.

To make Bakker's opportunity even sweeter, Bodenhamer is planning on teaching a marine biology course next fall, something Bakker said she hopes her experience will not only make more enjoyable to take, but enable her to help Bodenhamer a bit.

"I'm really hoping that I can help Hans teach next year," she said. "I just want to be able to give back as much as I can."

Bakker will also be presenting her very unusual summer vacation to the Bigfork School District board of Trustees upon her return.

I'm really excited about this," she said. "I'm getting to do something I'm going to love that will get me far in life."

Bakker has set up an account at Flathead Bank of Bigfork for anyone who wants to donate toward her trip. The account is in Bakker's name, and specifically states "For PISCO Intertidal Program."