What are you up to now?

Jen Levye
REU '09

Mentor: Missy Holbrook, Jim Wheeler

Project: Implications of Sectoral Variation in Red Oaks and Red Maples on Sap Flow Measurements (abstract)
Hometown: Sharon, MA
College and major: Harvard College, Organismic & Evolutionary Biology, class of '11


What you miss most about the REU program:
I miss the amazing people I met this summer. I miss being able to go on hikes through the woods after a day in the lab, and I miss my lab, with the awesome set-up we had going.

What you miss least about the REU program:
The mosquitoes. But more seriously, there were times when my job got kind of tedious - I won't miss the days spent in the basement soldering sensors, or sitting poring over spreadsheets for hours. It was still good experience though.

What about the REU program has stuck with you:
One, that I'm definitely going to go into a research based field where I can go out and do field research, rather than going to medical school. I think I'm more confident in my ability to ask research questions and interpret data, and I made amazing friends and will have wonderful memories of the summer.

Have you stayed in touch with other REU students?:
Absolutely! A group of us got coffee last weekend (and I'm dating someone I met at HF, so we're in touch rather a lot).

Whether your REU experience supported or changed your career plans:
Yes, changed them - I'm pretty certain I no longer want to go to med school but would rather pursue a PhD in Ecology or a similar field.

What you're up to now:
I'm in my junior year, right now trying to figure out what I'm doing next summer. I might be working in my REU mentor's lab at Harvard this year, and thinking about thesis plans. I might do my thesis based on research we started this summer, but even if I don't, I might be coming back to Harvard Forest for a couple of weeks to help out with Jim's project. Later, I don't know- probably grad school with some time off before that, either teaching or working in lab.

Want to see more alumni profiles? Check out our Harvard Forest REU alumni blog.

What are you up to now?

Daniella Rodriguez
REU '09

Mentor: Shannon Pelini
Project: Under warmer conditions, the advantage of improved foraging is negated by increased mortality in Aphaenogaster rudis (abstract)

Hometown: Yuma, AZ
College and major: Arizona State University, Conservation Biology and Ecological Sustainability, class of '11

What you miss most about the REU program:
My mentor and the friends I made.

What you miss least about the REU program:
Living with 20 other people.

What about the REU program has stuck with you:
How to start and go about a science project - and that research can take a lot of work but it can also be a lot of fun!

Have you stayed in touch with other REU students?:
Yes.

Whether your REU experience supported or changed your career plans:
A little bit of both.

What you're up to now:
Right now I am working on my first semester here at ASU and just hoping to do well in my classes.. and hopefully by January start looking for REUs for next summer!

Want to see more alumni profiles? Check out our Harvard Forest REU alumni blog.

What are you up to now?

Alana Belcon
REU '03

Mentor: Aaron Ellison

Project: Distribution and diversity of bog vegetation at Tom Swamp

Hometown: Arima, Trinidad & Tobago
College and major: Mount Holyoke College, Environmental Studies, class of 2004

What you miss most about the REU program:
The camaraderie between participants. It was awesome being with so many other young people who were all environmentally/ecologically minded.

What you miss least about the REU program:
Working in the bog (Tom Swamp) by myself. I enjoyed my project but it was difficult doing it solo.

What about the REU program has stuck with you:
So many things - the people, the beauty of Harvard Forest, the knowledge that if I could do that project by myself then I can do anything.

Have you stayed in touch with other REU students?:
Yes, several.

Whether your REU experience supported or changed your career plans:
Supported, as I was already an environmental studies major with a GIS focus.

What you're up to now:
I'm currently in grad school at Duke University doing my PhD in tropical climatology with a focus on the South American/Caribbean region.

Want to see more alumni profiles? Check out our Harvard Forest REU alumni blog.

What are you up to now?

Corietta (Cory) Teshera-Sterne
REU '09

Mentor: Emery Boose
Project: A Software Engineering Approach to Scientific Data Provenance (abstract)

Hometown: Seattle, WA
College and major: Mount Holyoke College, Biology/Computer Science, class of '10

What you miss most about the REU program:
Being around scientists all the time, the food, my friends, and the forest right outside my door.

What you miss least about the REU program:
The insects, indoors and out.

What about the REU program has stuck with you:
My project - it's continuing on to be my senior thesis, so I'll be stuck with it for a while yet!

Have you stayed in touch with other REU students?:
Very much so - I'm dating one! A bunch of us also met up in Boston a week or two ago to catch up, and we stay in touch on the net.

Whether your REU experience supported or changed your career plans:
One of the stated goals of the REU program is to provide some of the experience undergrads need to determine whether or not they want to pursue research as a career. Although I already planned to go on to grad school and pursue research, having this summer experience greatly supported that decision and gave me much greater motivation to follow through on my plans.

What you're up to now:
I'm starting my final year of my undergraduate college career, beginning my senior thesis based on my REU project, and thinking about grad schools.

Want to see more alumni profiles? Check out our Harvard Forest REU alumni blog.

What are you up to now?

Rob Hanifin
REU '04

Mentor:
Project: First year reproductive responses of two forest herbs to experimental soil warming

Hometown: Deptford, NJ
College and major: Dickinson College, Biology/Environmental Science, class of '06

What you miss most about the REU program:
Tim's food. Interacting and working with so many interesting people, from a variety of backgrounds, studying different but interesting and relevant topics.

What you miss least about the REU program:
Four of us rooming together in the same room.

What about the REU program has stuck with you:
That there are many intelligent contemporaries interested in ecological research.

Have you stayed in touch with other REU students?:
A couple now and again. Not very often though.

Whether your REU experience supported or changed your career plans:
I was interested in research, and continued to follow that same path. Since then, I've veered slightly.

What you're up to now:
Activities since college graduation (Spring 2006):
May 2006 - August 2007 - research assistant, MBL soil warming projects at Harvard Forest
Oct-Dec 2007 - Part time and nightshifts in neuroscience lab at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia.
Nov-Dec 2007 - worked on a UPS delivery truck
January 2008 - present: USDA-ARS, Davis, CA. I work for a USDA researcher who is based in the Viticulture and Enology Dept. at UC Davis. We study how vineyard soil chemistry inpacts grape quality and quantity, vineyard soil/plant water relations, and few other odds and ends.

Want to see more alumni profiles? Check out our Harvard Forest REU alumni blog.

What are you up to now?

Naomi Clark
REU '03

Mentors: Eric Davidson, Kathleen Savage
Project: Comparing root respiration of three tree species

Hometown: Harpers Ferry, WV
College and major: West Virginia University, Biology, class of '04

What you miss most about the REU program:
I miss so many things! For one, the people I met were truly amazing. The setting couldn't have been better, either! I'll never forget our weekend adventures or midweek climbs up the water tower!

What you miss least about the REU program:
Black flies!

What about the REU program has stuck with you:
The sense of community was really moving for me. Since my REU, I've tried to incorporate that into new labs, living situations, and friendships.

Have you stayed in touch with other REU students?:
Definitely! I've met up with many of them all over the country. One even moved a block away from me a few years ago.

Whether your REU experience supported or changed your career plans:
Supported. I went on to get my Masters at the University of Nevada where I worked at the desert FACE facility. My plant-soil work at HF helped me hit the ground running with root respiration and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi studies.

What you're up to now:
Currently, I am a lab manager for an ecology professor at UC Davis. We're examining the effects of global change and grazing regimes on the nutrient cycling of California grasslands. What's next? I'm not sure, yet!

Want to see more alumni profiles? Check out our Harvard Forest REU alumni blog.

What are you up to now?

Joanna Bate
REU '03

Mentor: David Kittredge
Project: Timber harvesting: a study of the effects of socio-economic characteristics and forest ownership patterns in Massachusetts and New Hampshire

Hometown: Nashville, TN
College and major: Haverford College, Biology, class of '03

What you miss most about the REU program:
Living with smart, fun, creative people my age in a remote setting where we had to make up our own fun.

What you miss least about the REU program:
Sitting at a computer all day doing GIS was a little boring.

What about the REU program has stuck with you:
My friendships, and my exposure to ecology (which is now my science field of choice), GIS, and land use issues.

Have you stayed in touch with other REU students?:
Yes! Although not as well as I might have hoped, but we are still buds.

Whether your REU experience supported or changed your career plans:
I didn't have much in the way of plans when I went, and it has definitely supported my pursuit of ecology, studying human impacts on ecosystems, and use of GIS.

What you're up to now:
I am finishing my Masters in Environmental Planning at the U of Arizona, and working as a Research Assistant at the University's Water Resources Research Center, where I'm helping establish city programs to connect water conservation with environmental restoration projects. I'm hoping to continue my work on linking science with policy as well as my focus on water issues. I will be moving back to the northeast within the next couple of years.

Want to see more alumni profiles? Check out our Harvard Forest REU alumni blog.

What are you up to now?

Tawny Virgilio
REU '09

Mentor: Dave Orwig, Heidi Lux
Project: The Use of Mixed-Bead Resins to Determine the Effect of Two Invasive Insects on Throughfall Nitrogen Dynamics Under Eastern Hemlock (Tsuga canadensis L.) (abstract)

Hometown: Hinsdale, MA
College and major: Westfield State College, Environmental Science/Biology, class of '10

What you miss most about the REU program:
All of the people I met this past summer- the staff at the forest, the researchers, and most of all, my colleagues.

What you miss least about the REU program:
Worrying about whether or not I contracted Lyme Disease...

What about the REU program has stuck with you:
It gave me a sense of true accomplishment to be selected based on merit by someone who works for Harvard University. I finally feel like all of my hard work at my small undergraduate institution has paid off, and that I will be able to continue to be competitive in the future.

Have you stayed in touch with other REU students?:
Absolutely. We all wish we could get together for a reunion- we'll just have to fly in the people from Canada and Puerto Rico and South Africa.

Whether your REU experience supported or changed your career plans:
Yes it supported my school and career plans by reinforcing the fact that I need to go to graduate school, and that I will.

What you're up to now:
Right now, as mentioned earlier, I'm giving it my all one last time at Westfield State College as a senior. I'm also in the terrifying process of trying to juggle all of that while being in contact with researchers who I'd like to work with, and trying to figure out which grad school I'd like to attend. All I know now is, I'd like to work in the Behavioral Ecology field or perhaps Urban or Rural Ecology in connection with the concept of Environmental Justice. I'd like to make a smooth transition into a Master's program for the fall semester of 2010. Wish me luck!

Want to see more alumni profiles? Check out our Harvard Forest REU alumni blog.

What are you up to now?

Julia Ka'iulani Nelson

REU '03

Mentor: Kristina Stinson

Project: Effects of soil disturbance and mowing on demographic structure and seedling performance in garlic mustard (Allaria petiolata) populations

Hometown: Honolulu, Hawaii
College and major: Stanford University, Anthropological Sciences/Archaeology, class of 2004

What you miss most about the REU program:
Too many things! Mostly the wonderful people I met there, but also being out in the field. Harvard Forest is beautiful!

What you miss least about the REU program:
Absolutely nothing! I miss it all.

What about the REU program has stuck with you:
It strengthened my skills in scientific inquiry, also my commitment to environmental issues and forestry.

Have you stayed in touch with other REU students?:
Yes - I occasionally see people with the program and keep in touch via email.

Whether your REU experience supported or changed your career plans:
Completely supported them; provided scientific depth to my experience; I went back to take an ecology course at school and that scientific background helps in my current work.

What you're up to now:
I currently co-manage the mining practice at Business for Social Responsibility, a global nonprofit business association that works with companies to improve their social and environmental practices. I spend quite a bit of time working with companies on climate change, community development, and community consultation. I've co-facilitated a major international initiative to improve labor and environmental conditions in the electronics supply chain, and worked on the ground for mining, oil & gas companies around the world. Next I'm interested in exploring conflict resolution around natural resources.

Want to see more alumni profiles? Check out our Harvard Forest REU alumni blog.

What are you up to now?

Jennifer Popham
REU '09

Mentor: Ed Faison

Project: Seedling & Sapling Composition Influences Browsing Intensity of Ungulates in Massachusetts (abstract)

Hometown: Gardner, MA
College and major: University of Massachusetts, Wildlife and Fisheries Conservation, class of 2010

What you miss most about the REU program:
I miss the people I worked with and spending every day outdoors in the woods.

What you miss least about the REU program:
Getting soaked in the field on rainy days wasn't fun.

What about the REU program has stuck with you:
The friendships I made and the memories of seeing moose and being chased by a bear.

Have you stayed in touch with other REUers?:
Yes, some of us have continued to communicate regularly online.

Whether your REU experience supported or changed your career plans:
The experience I got will definitely help me down the road. The program also confirmed that I will enjoy being a park ranger more than a scientist conducting my own research, which is great to find out sooner than later.

What you're up to now:
I am in my senior year, planning to graduate in May 2010. I hope to secure a job with the National Park Service for next summer.

Want to see more alumni profiles? Check out our Harvard Forest REU alumni blog.