Switching from Finance to Oceanography - Seeking Advice

Hi everyone!

I'm currently in the midst of a career switch and I'm interested in chemical oceanography. I'm looking for some advice on how I should conduct this career transition so that I can get on track to be competitive for graduate school (Either Master's or PhD). Here is my current plan/credentials:

I have a bachelors in Business Administration (concentration in Finance) from Cal Poly SLO. I graduated with a 3.8 gpa and have two years of corporate finance experience where I was managing large expense budgets and conducting a lot of data management. I'm currently working on the prerequisite courses out of Cabrillo College in Santa Cruz, CA which include chemistry, organic chemistry, physics, calculus, and biology. I'm hoping to spend some time at UCSC as well to get a few upper division courses knocked out as well (physical chemistry, analytical chemistry, upper level calculus, etc.). I'm also working on learning how to code (Python, R) and am planning to create a small github portfolio where I pursure a few projects related to chemical oceanography on my own time with publicly available data. I'm looking for research opportunities currently, but it has been difficult to find them without being affiliated with a four-year university.

Does anybody have any advice on my path? My dream is to go to Scripps in San Diego but I realize this is a reach and looking into other programs as well (UCSC, UCSB, etc.)

Also, if there is anyone in the area that would be willing to have a conversation with me or could point me in the direction of researchers nearby, that would be greatly appreciated!

I'm so much happier pursuing this career path and I'm very excited to continue my journey.