Jessie Johns has flown across the country and across the ocean just so she can get a glimpse of what she hopes her future will hold.

For the past three weeks, the 14-year-old student from Baltimore has been on O'ahu participating in the Johns Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth program. Her dream is to be a marine biologist and the program, through a partnership with Hawai'i Pacific University and Oceanic Institute, is giving her a taste of ocean reality.

So far, so good.

"One of the reasons I like (the program) is that it is in Hawai'i," Johns said. "You can get a really good sense of marine biology ... and we're surrounded by ocean."

HPU is conducting classes for more than 200 students ages 12 to 16 at its Windward campus this summer. Two of the classes are at the Oceanic Institute as part of the organization's residential program. Students also spend time aboard the university's research vessel, the RV Kaholo, and at the Paepae O He'eia Fishpond in Kane'ohe.

Johns' three-week crash course wrapped up on Friday, and a new group of potential marine biologists and oceanography hopefuls started taking classes yesterday. That session ends Aug. 4.

Johns is a five-year veteran of the Center for Talented Youth, which invites students in grades 2 through 10 who score in the 95th percentile on standardized tests. To date, more than 100,000 students over the past 20 years have participated in the programs.

Not all of the participants here have designs on a marine biology career. Some said they came to Hawai'i because it was the best way to learn more about the culture of the ocean.

For Johns, marine biology is more than another subject. It's her passion.

Her favorite moment was doing research aboard the RV Kaholo and collecting plankton samples to study in the science lab.

"I got to drink some of the plankton," Johns said. "(The instructors) said it was OK to drink. But I spit it back out because it was disgusting."

While aboard the research vessel, students also tested water temperature, oxygen levels, and pressure about 12 meters down.

The oceanography course is modeled after similar first-year college courses. Students learn how people struggle to balance the economic and environmental concerns in Hawai'i. They also learn the structure, formation and features of the Pacific Ocean basin and examine currents, tides and waves. Sessions also include the investigation of biochemical cycles that affect seawater, the examination of ocean-atmosphere interactions, and the various unique marine life that dwell along the shorelines, within the coral reef and in the deep ocean.

"It's a pretty rigorous program — a total of 110 contact hours for the session," said Eric Ahner, Center for Talented Youth site director.

The two courses offered in Hawai'i this summer are Oceanography: The Hawaiian Pacific and The Life Cycle of an Island: Hawai'i.

Five sections of the oceanography class and two sections of the life-cycle class are being taught.

Thea Carling from Arizona is a first-time instructor in Hawai'i who has been involved with the Center for Talented Youth program for three years.

Carling tutored the same 16 students for the entire three-week session, most of them coming from the East Coast and California.

"They're awesome," Carling said of her students. "They work really well with each other. They are always very attentive."

Carling said she and her students spend seven hours a day in the classroom and from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m., students are allowed to participate in sports activities, as well as arts and crafts such as lei making.

After dinner, the students have a two-hour study session where they finish up assignments from earlier in the day, review material or complete readings. After that, they have an hour to relax with friends before bedtime.

For their efforts, the students get a certificate of completion at the end of the session, Carling said. Some students get school credit for the three-week summer session.

Jason Foggie, 15, is in his third and final year with the summer program. Foggie, from New York City, took two other marine biology courses at Notre Dame over the past two summers.

"It's better here," he said. "There's ocean everywhere."

Reach Brittany Yap at byap@honoluluadvertiser.com.