Would you share a bit about yourself, and some of the highlights of your time at Wesleyan?
Hi! I’m Phoebe Snyder, and I am a class of 2023 graduate. I’m originally from New York, but I have relocated to Denver, Colorado, since graduation. There were a lot of highlights of my Wesleyan experience. During my time at Wes I was on the swim team, also part of a co-ed fraternity on campus! I was a double major in environmental studies and government.
Were you involved with research on campus?
Yes, I worked on research with Helen Poulos, who was fantastic and very supportive. I completed a thesis on the effects of thinning on forests to see how it would affect post fire hydrology, with Professor Poulos as my advisor. I researched whether or not this was beneficial for immediate regrowth and health of forests. I didn’t collect the data in the field myself, but reviewed Helen’s data utilizing GIS analysis. I spent a lot of time sorting through the excel spreadsheets to look at evapotranspiration rates, and examined how water was cycling through the ecosystem. The evapotranspiration rates of plants were indicators of how healthy they were.