Summer begins

(April 21st, 2025)

First school year complete, and summer field season begins!

April 21st, 2025

Finishing classes

This week is the final week of my second semester in graduate school. I only took two classes this semester and I only have one final, which is only a project. In the last month, I went to the NSTA conference in Phillidalphia and hosted my sister visiting for a week, so now I am catching up on a lot to finish up my work and projects before the semester ends and summer field season begins.

One year of GRFP

One big task I had to complete this past week was my GRFP Annual report. In this report I had to summarize my 2024-2025 activities and major accomplishments in terms of Broader Impacts and Intellectual Merit. I didn't have much to put in the report this year, but I look forward to having a collection at the end of my PhD to reflect back on my progress. On top of this report, I confirmed that I will be on tenure for next year too. It was advised that I stay on tenure for my second year to get my comprehensive exams finished. I'm also looking forward to a year off driving to and from campus twice a week.

Summer Field Season

This summer I will be running my very first completely independent project. I am very excited to be able to ask and hopefully answer my questions in my own creative way. I've written some about my research plans on the Research page. Thus far, I've gotten my broccoli plants growing strong. I'll be planting 100 new seeds every two weeks and after 6 weeks in the growth chamber I'll move them to the greenhouse. Hopefully this ensures that my caterpillars will have plenty of food!

On top of my research, I will be mentoring two REUs (Research Experience for Undergrads). I am looking forward to be able to share my passion for butterflies and education with the undergrads. I am also looking forward to seeing another new season here in Michigan (not excited for the humidity though!).

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