Hey, Amy! What majors or minors did you decide to link with environmental studies during your time here?
I’m majoring in environmental studies and biology, and minoring in IDEAS.
What drew you to those majors?
I came into college, knowing that I wanted to study biology. I grew up on a farm in a pretty rural area, so I always had a strong connection with nature. That’s the same thing that drew me to environmental studies. In terms of IDEAS, I took a mechanical design class my first semester of college, and just like really loved the creative aspect of it. Being able to do hands-on work, as opposed to a lot of my bio classes at that time that were just purely lecture based classes. I really liked the interactive aspect of it.
So what did you do for your senior project?
I did a thesis, I worked with a lab at UMass Boston that I interned with last summer. The lab is focused on marine ecology. The project was looking at how different environmental changes are impacting kelp populations and we found that nitrate concentrations and sea surface temperature are primary environmental drivers of kelp population decline in the northwestern Atlantic. So on the coast of Connecticut, Boston, and up towards Nova Scotia.
Are you interested in doing that kind of work post grad?
I’m actually looking at doing data work post grad. Something that this project really showed me is the value of being able to draw insights from data, because it was all data and analysis based. I didn’t actually collect the data for my project. We sourced data from a bunch of different labs along the coast. It’s been really cool learning how to use these different tools to draw insights from data. That’s something that I definitely want to continue to pursue in the future and something that I’m really excited about.
Did you have a favorite class during your time at Wesleyan?
For a while it was the first IDEAS class that I took, the mechanical design one. We did some really fun projects. We had to make something that hopped—any sort of machine that could jump up in the air, which I thought was really cool. That was a really fun project. But then I took a botany class with Professor Sultan, which was basically a complete overview of the history and anatomy of plants. It was super challenging but also super interesting. One of the most in-depth classes I’ve ever taken. I really love plants, so it was really cool to learn about them.
Do you have any advice for other people who are just starting out in the environmental studies linked major?
I think a missed opportunity for me was that I focused a lot on courses that were more geared toward biology, just because that was kind of my comfort zone. I could have taken more opportunities to branch out and take more classes that were humanities focused, especially because there’s so much overlap between environmental studies and the ecology track in biology that I was doing. So I would definitely say that branching outside of your comfort zone is worth doing and something I think I could have done a little more.
What was your favorite class outside the biology sphere?
I took a class on sustainable agriculture, which was biology related, but a lot more human focused:. Studying how food is involved in culture and how different food pathways can be made more sustainable. That was super interesting and something that I feel fused the humanities aspect that I’m not as comfortable with with biology related things.
Do you have any reflections about your time in the environmental studies linked major?
I’m really happy with all the classes that I took within the major, I think it was super worthwhile and provided a cool perspective on the biology major. It’s interesting how the program fuses majors. I learned a lot more taking those two majors together than I would have just with biology.