Hope & H*ll: Fall ‘20
Grant Application
I spent the first half of the fall term preparing an application to the National Science Foundation’s Graduate Research Fellowship Program in Geoscience, due on October 22, 2020. I called in the help of three of my committee members for advice and revisions; and called on my undergraduate mentor, Marco Keiluweit, for a letter of recommendation. Last fall, I drafted a 10+ page research proposal with extensive background information. I distilled this earlier work to a comprehensive, yet concise, 2-page research plan. Three previous (and successful) applicants from my program close-read my drafts and gave me loads of help on the organization and wording of my 3-page personal statement. I couldn’t have completed this process by myself and for that I’m forever grateful for the wealth of knowledge I have access to in my support network. I’m expecting news about the award in April 2021, so please do wish me luck!
Field work
I started enacting my research plan by preparing iron oxide indicators of reduction in soil (IRIS) probes and helping to establish a new field site in Corinth, VT. In October, I used up all of the ferrihydrite solution that I made during a 3-day synthesis by painting 48 2’ PVCs. In late October, I installed 8 soil-temperature-moisture (STM) probes and planted 3 IRIS probes around each one along hill slopes at Corinth. My hope is to find variation in soil moisture and redox profiles across different landscape positions at Corinth. In early November, I installed 2 IRISs in each of the heated and control plots at the Soil Warming and Nitrogen addition (SWaN) site in the Harvard Forest. I’ll retrieve the IRIS at both sites once the ground thaws come Spring. Finally, I’ll analyze images of the probes for depth-wise distribution of reducing conditions. This method is most reliable in wetland environments, so I see my attempt in applying it to two highland soil environments is a sort of gamble.
Lab work
Apart from the titrating-fun I had with KOH and FeCl₃, I did not quite find my groove with lab work this term. The COVID-19 pandemic has been wildly disruptive to my second year of Ph.D. work. I changed gears this past Spring, the end of my first year, and took to reading more. I have yet to make the necessary adaptations to stay on pace with a typical second year of a Ph.D. Additionally, engineering a redox potential data-logger is a tremendous undertaking and I’ve felt lost without regular meetings with helpful on-campus resources. An issue I’ve fully realized thanks to conversations with my graduate advisor, Caitlin Hicks Pries, is that I have not been taking much action in terms of trial-and-error. I’ve felt so engrossed with my project’s design and proposal that I have not been, simply, trying new things out. Logically, I know I need to fail a whole lot more in order to hone in on the solutions to my project’s problems. I just need to reinvent myself as an independent researcher and set a higher pace for lab work.
CourseWork
“Foundations of Environment and Society,” was the single class I took this term. This is one of the two foundations classes that are required of Ecology, Evolution, Environment, and Society (EEES) students. I read a great deal of environmental anthropology, sociology, and justice literature and participated in thought-provoking discussions about the history of humans interacting with their environment. Many large themes arose from the readings, these included: capitalism and extractive natural resource management, colonialism and social conflicts, and religious practice and recreational traditions. For my term paper, I wrote a literature review on Indigenous environmental justice (IEJ) in America. There are countless examples of injustice across the country and through time and taking a deep-dive into Indigenous justice history helped me understand omnipresent issues such as industrial threats to sacred lands, economic gridlock, pervasive tribal health risks, and challenges of tribal sovereignty and communication with state and federal governments of the US. I read and heard the voices of many Indigenous scholars which I plan to elevate throughout my scientific career. I admire the relationships with nonhumans and the environment that many Indigenous tribes cultivate; and I believe that science should be used to care for the universe and all of its community members, non-human, non-living, and otherwise. I’m greatly relieved that this course is over because I experienced severe burn-out from reading so much existentially-heavy material. Even though the course is not topically relevant to my research, I’m glad that I was required to take it because I think that I’m a better person and better academic now.
Extracurriculars
This term, I may of engaged in a time management tradeoff by getting involved with extracurriculars. I’m now on the executive board of Dartmouth’s Graduate Women in Science and Engineering (GWISE) as a communications coordinator and spend time circulating information about GWISE seminars on public health, racial justice, and diversity and inclusion in STEM. I also received the Dartmouth Science Education Partnership Award (SEPA) which adds a bump to my annual stipend for this academic year and allows me to gain more experience as an educator. The mission of Dartmouth SEPA is to pair graduate students with professionals from the local Montshire Museum of Science and develop science curriculum for rural, low-income 6th grade classes in the area. The group has worked hard over the past year to develop units on human diseases, tick ecology, and climate change. My main assignment for this year is to improve the unit about tick ecology and disease transmission and modify the lessons for virtual delivery. This opportunity to work with professionals at the Montshire Museum and graduate students from other programs with a similar passion for educator training has been incredibly enjoyable for me. I went to a small, rural K-8 school in Lamoine, ME with small and shrinking budget. There were few enough students to have one class for each grade. Over the years I attended, we lost our foreign language program; our arts and music programs downsized; and four grades had to merge into two after a couple teachers had to be laid off. My awareness of my school’s low budget was disheartening. Our town didn’t have its own high school and when I went to the regional MDI High School, students from Lamoine had a discouraging reputation for underperformance. I knew that it was only because we weren’t afforded the same opportunities and experiences as students from richer towns. My backstory makes Dartmouth SEPA all the more meaningful to me because I’m contributing to the experience of students that are growing up in the same environment as I did.
Life outside of ph.d.
It’d be silly not to mention the passing of this year’s presidential election in my blog post, so I’ll do so and keep it brief. The news cycle, of late, has been incredibly mentally taxing. Reasonable hope for a peaceful transfer to President-elect Joe Biden is almost completely absent. Trump’s treatment of the press, now even including his former Fox favorites, is damaging to our society. The severity of the present partisan divide makes the foundation of future legislation a hellscape. The pandemic has made it obvious that our country lacks strong healthcare and social programs; and from an economic standpoint, our country needs sharp catch-up growth to match the recovery of other countries from the pandemic. The House and Senate have seemed to always be in gridlock (a no-runaway blessing and a no-progress curse), so I’m not holding my breath for dramatic improvements.
Thanks for reading along!
- Geni G.