My Skills

Research, Critical Writing and Communication, Leadership and Teamwork, and Interdisciplenary Thinking

Research

Pollination Ecology

I have engaged in multiple research experiences focused on building our collective understanding of pollinators and how they interact with our environments. Through various experimental and observational studies I have build skills in literature review, hypothesis generation, experimental design, data collection and analysis, and communicating results. Presenting scientific research to multiple audiences, from other scientists at national conferences to children in presentations at middle schools, is a skill I prioritize in my academic and personal life.

Discovering a new species of ant, Nylanderia maximon, endemic to Guatemala is an accomplishment I am particularly proud of. Additionally, designing large scale field studies in Greece and at UF have shaped my goals as I enter the next stage of my career.

Critical Writing

Formal and Informal Communication

As a student and scientist, clear and engaging communication is an important skill which I have developed through the University and International Scholars Programs. In writing my honors thesis summarizing plant-pollinator interactions in a UF garden system, I honed my scientific writing skills to tell a story of seasonal change and tradeoffs between managed and wild bees. My article in American Entomologist, a science magazine published by the Entomological Society of America, shares my experiences conducting research in Greece and advocates for international scientific collaboration in the face of climate change. I aim to share my passion for pollinator conservation, as well as the knowledge I have accumulated in each of my classes in every piece of writing I complete.

Leadership and Teamwork

Leading a Research Team

While conducting bee research in Greece, I was tasked with leading a nine-person team of researchers in an experiment which I designed. This invovled explaining the procedure carefully, justifying each step to my peers and mentors, managing tasks in the field, and motivating everyone through a brutal day of data collection in the Greek sun. I organized each team member in an assembly line system to gather data on pollinator activity, nectar volume, internal flower temperature, and environmental conditions. We sampled every two hours from 5 am to 9pm, which was exhasting, so a large part of my resposibility as a leader was to keep moral and precison up within the group. Ultimatly, we collected comprehensive data which I presented at the Society for Intagrative and Comparative Biology meeting with the support of my teammates.

Interdisiplenary Thinking

Bees, environment, food, and people

Webs, networks, systems, and frameworks play a big part in how I make sense of my surroundings and values. They guide how I approach learning, engage with intersectional environmentalism, and build the support networks that sustain me. The points of intersection between ideas, communities, and disciplines strengthen my approach to challenges and impact on the world. This skill is important to my international scholarship as it helps me compare and adapt to new global communities, understand the interacting factors which contribute to large-scale problems, and find the niche where I can make a difference.