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Environmental professionals speak to UD students about careers

April 2, 2012 under CANR News

A number of University of Delaware students spent their St. Patrick’s Day learning about potential career paths from environmental professionals at the 2012 Environmental Career Morning event hosted by the Department of Food and Resource Economics in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources (CANR).

Panelists included representatives from federal and state government, an analyst from a consulting firm and a coordinator from the non-profit sector.

After a welcome from Steve Hastings, professor in the department, the four professionals engaged in a panel discussion, answering questions from Hastings, who served as the panel moderator, and from the students in attendance. The panel was followed by a mingling session during which the students got to meet the professionals in a one-on-one setting.

Kate Miller, a senior environmental studies major in the College of Arts and Sciences and an Honors Program student, attended the event and said that the panelists offered great advice to the students. “I feel like a lot of the advice students receive about the job market is either very sugar coated or downright depressing,” she said, “so it was refreshing to have professionals share their experiences in a way that made you feel like even though finding the job you want can be difficult at times, it can certainly be done.”

Miller, who plans to pursue a master’s degree in water science and policy at UD and hopes to eventually work in watershed policy for either the government or a non-profit agency, added that the panelists presented great tips about the hiring process and provided helpful insight into resumes and interview skills.

Erika Farris, a UD alumna and an environmental scientist with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Water, was one of the panelists, and offered up some advice to current students seeking a career in the environmental field, saying that it is important to obtain as much experience as possible and to pursue an advanced degree. She also stressed the importance of remaining open minded when looking for a career. “Even if something does not fit perfectly with your interests,” she said, “you can probably learn something from the experience, and may even discover new interests or skills.”

Farris — who graduated from UD with a bachelor’s degree in 2007 and a master’s degree in 2009, and who had Hastings as an undergraduate adviser — said that she had wanted to be a part of a career day because she can remember what it was like being a student and looking for a job. “I remember being in their shoes, not that long ago, and being uncertain about what opportunities existed with that major,” she said.

Besides reaching out to the students and providing them career advice, Farris also said that she wanted to take part in Career Morning because she was “interested in hearing about the career interests of current students, and learning about what career paths other alumni have taken.”

Jennifer Walls, the principal planner for the planning section of the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC), also sat on the panel. She explained that it is important for students entering the work force to “be flexible and open to job opportunities outside of your major.” She encouraged students to “think outside of the box when looking for jobs, and take part in as many internships as you can as an undergraduate or graduate student. If you can’t find an internship, then volunteer locally.”

Melissa Luxemberg, a senior in CANR and an Honors Program student, said that with graduation approaching, she is trying to keep all doors open as to what she can do for a future career, so she enjoyed being able to speak with professionals from the environmental field. “It was great to pick their brains about the opportunities they think are most promising for someone with my major and degree.”

Panelists included:

  • Jennifer Walls, principal planner for the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control’s Planning Section;
  • Erika Farris, environmental scientist, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Water;
  • Samantha Loprinzo, analyst for the consulting firm ICF International; and
  • Erin McVey, watershed coordinator for the non-profit organization Sassafras River Association.

Article by Adam Thomas

This article can also be viewed on UDaily

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Senior Thesis Awards enable students to focus on research over Winter Session

January 31, 2012 under CANR News

John Paul Harris, a University of Delaware senior, has spent UD’s Winter Session in the lab, testing the capability of the common, edible, oyster mushroom to remove harmful bacteria such as E. coli from water. He hopes his research will lead to a cheaper, greener way for cattle farmers in his hometown of Exmore, Va., to treat waste water and storm water to meet EPA standards.

Harris, a plant and soil sciences major and Honors Program student, is one of 23 recipients of Winter Session Senior Thesis Awards from the University’s Undergraduate Research Program. The $700 grants have enabled these students to pursue research full-time during Winter Session, Jan. 3-Feb. 4.

“University of Delaware students pursuing a senior thesis have the opportunity to immerse themselves in their scholarship,” says Lynnette Overby, director of UD’s Office of Undergraduate Research and Experiential Learning.

“Under the direction of committed faculty mentors, experiments are completed, chapters are written, and interviews are analyzed. These four weeks provide the time for students to work full time on a capstone activity that will lead to solutions of important disciplinary problems and launch their future as scholars and problem solvers,” Overby says.

After Harris completes his bachelor of science degree, he has his sights set on a doctorate and further exploration of the “treasure trove” of biological processes he says the microbial world can provide humankind.

“My goal in pursuing my Ph.D in microbiology is to elucidate the value of microbes through extensive research into their practical applications and subsequent employment in technology,” notes Harris, who is working under the guidance of Prof. Anastasia Chirnside. “The research I have done so far at the University of Delaware has let me begin doing just that.”

In another lab on campus, psychology major Lisa Dokovna, from Princeton Junction, N.J., is doing research on fetal alcohol spectrum disorder. She got involved in undergraduate research her sophomore year, working in Prof. Mark Stanton’s Developmental Behavioral Neuroscience lab.

Moderate to severe cognitive impairments can occur in children whose mothers consumed alcohol while pregnant. Dokovna wants to understand how such cognitive impairments occur and develop interventions to amelioriate them.

“My experience has motivated me to apply to graduate school to continue research and pursue a Ph.D. in neuroscience,” Dokovna says.

Shane Palkovitz, an English major and Honors Program student from Lincoln University, Pa., is in South Africa interviewing individuals who have been displaced from Zimbabwe. His adviser is McKay Jenkins, Cornelius A. Tilghman Professor of English.

One interviewee, who was forced off her family farm in Zimbabwe in 2002, told Palkovitz: “When they took our farm, we left the country. My grandmother would not come. Because of border restrictions, when she was sick, she could not get the medicine she needed, and she died alone on that side.”

Palkovitz says that although a number of factual publications exist on human displacement, his goal is “to add the human element to the statistics.”

“The hope of this research is to give a voice to those who wish to share their stories of displacement,” Palkovitz says. “It has been both an adventure and an honor getting to meet and interview so many amazing people.”

Article by Tracey Bryant

Photos by Evan Krape

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UD student spends summer as intern at Baltimore’s National Aquarium

December 16, 2011 under CANR News

When Sarah Thorne was young, she would take trips to the National Aquarium in Baltimore and her favorite part would be getting to see the big three-finned turtle, Calypso, languidly swimming in the “Wings in the Water” exhibit. Little did she know that in just a few years, she’d be on the other side of the exhibit, swimming right alongside Calypso as part of a summer internship at the aquarium.

“I’ve been going to the aquarium since I was a baby and I loved this turtle, so when I got to swim with her, that was pretty neat,” said Thorne.

As an aviculture intern working in the “Animal Planet Australia: Wild Extremes” exhibit, Thorne, a junior Honors Program student in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, was able to interact with a lot of the birds at the aquarium and she said that her favorite part involved giving the birds baths.

“At the very top of the exhibit you could put a mister on a hose and then spray it at this one tree, and the birds would all come over and start stretching out their wings to cool themselves off. That was kind of cool to watch,” Thorne said. “It was the easiest part — you just stood there and got to watch the birds.”

Her work was not restricted solely to birds, however. Thorne explained that she was able to interact with a host of different animals, including getting the opportunity to conquer her long-standing fear of snakes. “I’m afraid of snakes so they thought they’d try to let me see how I could deal with it, but I just fed them.”

Thorne said that she didn’t get around to holding the snakes and joked that she was “OK with that.”

Although sometimes she would get into a normal day-to-day routine, such as cleaning or feeding the animals, Thorne said she learned to always expect the unexpected because the animals could be unpredictable.

“Sometimes you could have a sick animal and you had to go do the veterinary exams,” she said. “You thought you were going to be preparing the diets or cleaning, then all of a sudden you were taking care of that animal instead.”

She also participated in enrichment programs for the animals, sometimes giving an animal a different toy to play with or switching its food.

Other tasks included putting up towels for flying foxes to hide behind, and spraying those towels with different animal scents. Thorne said it was while working with the flying foxes that a particularly memorable event occurred.

Thorne explained that the foxes don’t so much glide like a plane as they do crash into objects to make themselves stop: “They are crash landing flyers, they have to hit something to stop.”

So when one flying fox got stranded on a tree in the exhibit, Thorne said it “couldn’t figure out where to go next, ended up trying to fly and fell on the floor.”

She had to warn people nearby to stand back and then summoned an aquarium staff member to pick the animal up because she wasn’t allowed to do that.

Thorne said that except for being frightened, the flying fox escaped the incident without a scratch. “Luckily, he tried to land on a tree and he sort of slid down and then he fell on the floor.”

Not only did Thorne work as an intern at the National Aquarium, however. She also kept busy during the first part of the summer as a veterinary intern at a U.S. Department of Agriculture center in Beltsville, Md., while also holding down a part-time job at Clark’s Elioak Farm in Ellicott City, Md.

As a double major in agriculture and natural resources and animal biosciences, Thorne gained valuable hands-on experience at all of her jobs and was thrilled to get the chance to intern at the National Aquarium.

For those who would like an internship at the National Aquarium, Thorne encourages them to visit the internships website.

She also encouraged anyone who might apply not to be discouraged if things don’t work out right away. “I did apply another year and I had to apply again,” Thorne said. “So it might take two times, but it’s definitely worth it.”

Article by Adam Thomas

This article was originally posted on UDaily

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