HHMI
HHMI Scholars At Denison
Amber Burgett
Testimonial:
I began my undergraduate career at Denison University like most other incoming first year science majors; I was on the pre-med track, because that's what science majors did. Lucky for me, I had the opportunity through funding by the Hughes ERES scholarship to spend two summers conducting research in ecology. It was through this experience that I realized there was a whole other side to science, namely ecology, that I had never seen. This exposure to a new world where you could ask questions about things you observed in nature and then find out the answers, opened my eyes to other career possibilities for a science major.
Without the Hughes ERES experience, I would not be where I am today, a PhD. student in the Ecology, Evolution, and Population Biology program at Washington University in St. Louis. My early experiences in ecology which were funded by the Hughes ERES scholarship, gave me the background knowledge and experience that I needed to not only be a competitive applicant for graduate school, but also a successful ecologist who was more than prepared to tackle the challenges of graduate school.