The Virginia Institute of Marine Science, Gloucester Point, welcomed 19 new graduate students recently.

That brings total enrollment in the College of William and Mary’s School of Marine Science at VIMS to 91 students, spokesperson Erin Kelly said.

The new students are bringing “an infusion of new ideas and youthful enthusiasm to help maintain the high quality of research and education at VIMS,” said Dean and Director John Wells.

The class includes five foreign students: Haixing Wang and Fei Ye, both from China; Nicole Marshall from Canada, Cindy Marin Martinez from El Salvador, and Lucia Safi from Brazil.

The new class includes students with no shortage of impressive accomplishments under their belts. For example, Kelly said master’s student William Goldsmith comes to VIMS with a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University and has held positions as varied as a freelance magazine writer and a deckhand. Wang completed his undergraduate work at the Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan, China, before spending the past three years engaged in shipbuilding projects in Shanghai.

Another graduate student, Alexander Renaud has studied at the Smithsonian’s facilities in Panama, the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority, and the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences.

Other students in the class are Cassidy Peterson, Sara Blachman, Andrew Fallon, Melissa Karp, Quang Huynh, Amanda Knobloch, Sarah Pease, Danielle Tarpley, Jonathan Ricks, Lydia Bienlien and Melissa Karp. Continuing students Ann Arfken, Nadya Mammoozadeh and Benjamin Marcek are also completing their doctorates at VIMS.

“Our incoming students are extremely talented individuals who will contribute great things to VIMS, the local community, and our knowledge of Chesapeake Bay and the global ocean,” said Associate Dean of Academic studies Linda Schaffner. “The new students bring a wealth of research experience and academic knowledge that will further enrich the graduate program at VIMS.”