This academic year saw the graduation and departure of many Garden Ecology Lab students.
Jen graduated with her Ph.D. in horticulture, with an entomology option. Lilly S. graduated with an Honors B.S. in Biology. Anna P. and Kailey both graduated with a double degree, with a B.S. in Crop and Soil Sciences and a B.S. in Sustainability. Leo graduates with a B.S. in Botany and plant pathology, and a GIS certificate. We didn’t manage to get a profile of Lilly, before graduation, but you can see these great photos of her in action in the Jazz Ensemble.
The students are off to new and fun adventures, post graduation. Jen continues to work with the Garden Ecology Lab on developing infographics for all of our research. You can find these infographics, called the ‘Garden Ecology Lab Briefs’ on our website. Jen is also working with the Master Mellitologist program. Lilly is looking to attend graduate school in Germany, and is particularly interested in the work of the Urban Productive Ecosystems Lab. Anna is returning to the lab, to begin her M.S. degree in the Fall. Leo is doing fieldwork with the Insitute for Applied Ecology. And Kailey is looking into graduate school options, including working with the Garden Ecology Lab.
As one crew graduates, we have hired several new students on for the summer months. In this post, we wanted to spotlight Anna Janowski, who has been working in our group for about half a year.
Meet Anna Janowski
I’m Anna Janowski, a second-year undergraduate working in the Garden Ecology Lab. I’ve been fascinated by insects for most of my life; as a little kid, I was always getting up close and personal with the invertebrates that lived in my neighborhood. I would dig up earthworms from my family’s vegetable garden, give them names, and put them back with the hope that I’d see them again next year. I would get on my hands and knees in the dirt to search for ants, using my little plastic magnifying glass to get a closer look. I would pick up roly-poly caterpillars and hold them until they relaxed enough to uncurl and crawl around in my hand.
I may have graduated from toy magnifying glasses to dissection microscopes, but the curiosity and love of insects at the core of my explorations hasn’t changed. Given this background, perhaps it’s no surprise that I’ve become involved with the Garden Ecology Lab’s research on urban insect ecology, where more sophisticated scientific techniques are applied to answer essentially the same questions my preschool-aged self would have had: What insects are around us? Where do they live? Why are they here?
Currently, I’m pursuing a double degree with majors in zoology and creative writing as well as a minor in entomology. I’m hoping to complete an insect ecology-focused undergraduate honors thesis with the Garden Ecology Lab. I also want to study insect ecology in graduate school, and I’m exploring the possibility of combining my science and writing skill sets in a career in science communication. I’m particularly interested in the effects of climate change on beneficial insects and how insects may function as indicators of broader environmental issues.
Shortly after I started at OSU, I joined the Bug Club, hoping to meet other students who are as enthusiastic about entomology as I am. Now, I’m the outreach and education officer for the club, a position that has given me the opportunity to come up with creative ways to educate the public about entomology.
Outside of school and lab work, I spend most of my time playing trumpet for the Oregon State marching band, reading fantasy novels, and working on miscellaneous art projects.
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Add Yours →Congratulations to all the graduates, and a warm welcome to Anna Janowski! Excited to see all the great work coming from the lab this summer.