Amber Burgett '06

I have always loved being outdoors. I attribute this mainly to my childhood growing up on a farm in rural Ohio, without cable TV. While other children were flipping through hundreds of channels, I was outside skinning my knees and playing in the dirt. I guess I was your typical tomboy, with one small exception in that I lacked a true appreciation for bugs and spiders, an appreciation that my three brothers definitely had. Throughout junior high and high school, I had the typical dream any science loving, eternal optimist hoping to change the world. I wanted to be a doctor and cure cancer. A lofty dream indeed, but one, which I felt, was my only option if I wanted to pursue a degree in biology. It was not until I came to Denison that I realized there are other career options for a biology major. Options that include being outside. I never would have imagined I could turn my love for the outdoors and my persistent need to know why into a career! After my first summer of research here at Denison, I knew I had found a new career path that allowed me to pursue the things I loved. Dr. Geoff Smith introduced me to a world where I could ask questions and find the answers out myself, although I also was introduced to the wonderful world of waders, leaf litter collection, and staring at fish tanks recording behavioral observations. It was these not so glamorous tasks that attracted me to field research and helped affirm the fact that although field research is not easy, it is definitely rewarding and entertaining. After three summers of research projects, I have overcome that once prevalent fear of bugs and spiders! I even designed this past summer's project to examine predation in aquatic insects, a project that had me watch and count movements of these bugs for 6 hours a day! My love for the outdoors has truly reached a whole new level. I now find myself on a hike at the bio reserve identifying frog species by their calls or flipping over rocks to see what is living beneath it. Sure, being a doctor is a great career choice, one in which I am sure many people will be successful and happy. However, I am grateful to have realized where I belong?even if it is playing in the dirt looking for salamanders or wearing waders instead of my muddy play clothes!

Megan Coneybeer '06

I spent my childhood immersed in nature, and was constantly asking questions about all of the living creatures with which we share the planet. Every time my family and I went hiking or on road trips, there was always a contest to see who could find a red tail hawk soaring in the sky or rare Indian pipe fungi growing along a trail. Through these experiences I was taught to observe nature and associated a feeling of accomplishment when I learned something new about a plant or animal. I craved the grass under my feet, derived strength from the rivers and mountains, and developed a strong sense of place in the natural areas surrounding my home. When I took my first plant biology class in college, that is when I was sure, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the world of plants is where it?s at. Ever since plant biology with Dr. Hauk, I have tried to put myself in a position to be learning something new about plants whether it be ecological or evolutionary. I researched vegetation development in natural and mitigated wetlands with Dr. Spieles and now I am working with Dr. Hauk to assess the genetic variation in a rare fern species. With the knowledge and experience that I have gained from all of the biology professors at Denison, I intend to continue in my pursuit of plant knowledge and want to attend graduate school and focus on the sustainable production of agricultural and cultivated species.

Rhiannon Crouse '06

Biology as a subject is really just an extension of the stuff I liked to do as a kid. Ok, so a senior research project is a bit more sophisticated than chasing bugs, sticking them in the freezer for a bit and watching as they "came back to life" afterward, but honestly, if it moved, grew, and did something gross or funny, I've cared about for nearly as long as I can remember. So it shouldn't have come as a surprise to anyone to fast forward 10 or 15 years and discover me in a boat with Jessica Rettig, pulling water bugs out of muck, or in a cold creek up to my chest, seining for fish in conservation biology.

For me, at least, being a biology major has been incredibly personally rewarding. For example, I spent a semester in Australia and took a marine ecology course. Every time that I traveled to the coast, I'd see something I'd learned about in a tide pool or on the reefs. My friends learned not to ask rhetorical questions about what they saw in the ocean, because I'd either be way too excited to tell them, or I'd go and look it up, and then they'd have to hear the answer later. Being in Australia also gave me a sense of how satisfying it is for me to know what lives around me. It was extremely frustrating when I first arrived to look around and see amazing plants and animals and not know what a single one of them was. While my life's career may not be in ecology or in biology in its purest form, I know it is something that I'll never be able to leave behind. I hope to be right behind my kids, some day, catching something and getting muddy.

Julianne McCall '06

How lucky are we biologists to study such phenomena as embryo development, island ecology, and medical therapeutics? We strive to understand how the living world works as an ordered and self-perpetuating system by means of countless techniques, methods of analysis, and experimental designs. I am particularly fascinated by Neuroscience and issues pertaining to neural plasticity and regeneration. My interests arose at a young age from exposure to serious neurological issues when my little sister was born. She was diagnosed with hydrocephalus in utero and to this day is challenged by more medical struggles than physicians can make sense of. Her pediatrician expressed an idea which has stayed with me since Ashley's birth that has fostered an intense appreciation of the natural development and function of the living body. In trying to figure out what has gone wrong, "it's a miracle that so many things have gone right."

In choosing research as a career goal, I have been fortunate to have had numerous research lab experiences, mostly as a student intern, but lately as a student researcher, to help in deciding which aspect of Neuroscience I wish to pursue. After five years, seven research labs, and six institutions, including UCSD, Stanford, the Cleveland Clinic, and Denison, I have gained an immense respect for neuroscientists as well as their diverse approaches to research. Neuroscience is an intricately-layered discipline, composed of the molecular and cellular to behavior, systems, and cognition. Each perspective is equally important to understanding the brain. What is most exciting are recent endeavors that cross traditional boundaries between the various fields to further understand the synergistic accomplishments of the brain and nervous system. I feel lucky, then, to be entering a field that is so rich with potential to change modern medicine and therapeutics. It is my hope that everyone can discover and pursue that field of study which most fascinates them, for it is that sincere motivation, I believe, that will make the most significant difference in scientific and intellectual progress.

Cora Walsh '06

My mom teases me that my interest in science and medicine began at the age of six, when I would spend an evening handing out "Dr. Walsh's Miracle Pills" to my indulgent relatives. All through school I enjoyed science class, but it was later in high school that I really found my passion for science. Through the combination of my high school anatomy and biology classes with a year-long mentorship experience with two family practice physicians, something just clicked. I realized that I loved the combination of biology and medicine, the learning and searching for the how and why of the natural world, combined with a direct application of these findings to helping people in their daily lives. At Denison, I loved my biology classes from the beginning, but I was most fascinated with cellular and molecular biology and learning about organisms on such a detailed level. Then, in the course Infectious Disease, I became fascinated with learning the pathogenic mechanisms diseases have developed to thrive in the human body, and how these processes disrupt normal functioning.

In the summer before my junior year I had the chance to travel to Tanzania as a volunteer health intern with the NGO Global Service Corps. Through teaching HIV/AIDS prevention education day camps and my other projects in the local community, I witnessed for the first time in my life the suffering epidemic disease causes on a population wide level. I also began to understand the complex relationships in disease between biological transmission factors and the social and economic conditions facilitating the biological conditions necessary for its spread. In my senior research, I am pursuing an interdepartmental project between biology and sociology/anthropology, looking at HIV prevention organizations in sub-Saharan Africa and conducting an analysis of their varying degrees of success through both public health/biological and socio-economic indicators. Following graduation, I hope to pursue a Master's degree in Health, Community and Development followed by a return to Tanzania to work in the field of HIV prevention. After this, I plan on returning to enter medical school, hoping to someday work as a physician in sub-Saharan Africa.

Christian Wright '06

Although I have always had an appreciation for the outdoors and animals, I didn't get into Biology until my junior year in high school when I took an AP Bio course. This class really sparked my interest in studying biology at the undergraduate level; however, I was really unsure which field of Biology I wanted to study and what my career interests and plans were for the future. My sophomore year I took an Ecology & Evolution Biology class, and that's when it finally hit me, I really loved ecology! I quickly began signing up for courses that dealt with ecology and physiology and found myself extremely happy with these courses and the way they challenged me.

My junior year was when everything really started to come together and was the most influential year for me at Denison. I took the herpetology course taught by Dr. Homan and began to TA Biology courses. I was also fortunate enough to broaden my research experiences through a directed study and a summer research program on campus. I discovered that I had a true passion for reptiles and amphibians, ecological research and teaching/helping others; I finally realized I wanted to eventually become a professor at the collegiate level. This year, I am currently a TA for E&E and Animal Physiology, and performing senior research, under the advisement of Dr. Homan, on the influence of habitat type and quality on the distribution of aged individuals for a local population of spotted salamanders. After Denison, I hope to continue my educational, research, and teaching experiences in hopes of achieving my career goals. I truly hope that I can have a positive impact on the lives of younger students the way the Biology faculty at Denison had an impact on me.