About Me

My name is ENVL Student, and I am a graduating senior in the Environmental

Studies degree program at the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey. My passion for the

environment has been cultivated through the range of coursework I have taken, as well as

the professional experience that I have gained over the past years. I have worked for two

years as a Resource Interpretive Specialist for the NJ Division of Parks and Forestry, I have

worked as a fellow of Stockton College as a data analyzer for Atlantic Whitecedar data, and

in the summer of 2010 I will be employed as a lead researcher in a northern NJ urban

forestry initiative. In conjunction with courses I have taken (such as Botany, Ecological

Forest Management, Dendrology, and Genetics), these experiences have allowed me to

refine my education toward my deepest interests that lie in forest ecology and applied

genetics.

I plan to be a researcher and a professor in the near future, and to do so requires a

continuation of my education beyond the baccalaureate level. As such, I am currently

matriculated as a Master’s Degree Candidate at the Yale University School of Forestry and

Environmental Studies, and will begin in Fall 2010. During the two years that I am

completing this degree, I will be employed by Yale University as a laboratory instructor,

and will be teaching the undergraduate Dendrology lab. Upon completing my MFS (Master

of Forest Science) degree, I plan to immediately progress onto a Ph.D.

I am very interested in studying the way in which intraspecific genetic variation

contributes to physiological differences in trees. I plan to pursue this significant question

in my graduate studies, and upon completion of my Ph.D. I hope to find myself teaching

collegiate courses in forest ecology.

Reflection

I transferred to Stockton at the beginning of my sophomore year. Having come from

a private college and having been a pre-med student prior to coming here, I was very

unsure as to what an environmental studies degree would allow me to do with my life. The

coursework that I took (specifically, the plant biology courses) were not designed with an

end-goal in mind; they were chosen based on what was available at the time and what

interested me. It was not until the end of my junior year (spring 2009) that I realized that

forest science was my passion, and that I wanted to continue on to graduate school after

Stockton.

I am very fortunate for having come to Stockton, and for having such influential

professors guide me along my path. Because of the terrific faculty at the school, and the

courses that I have taken, I have found what I am most passionate about and am driving

myself forward to be a future leader in my field. The skills that I have learned, from all of

my classes and not just those included as artifacts, include: data analysis (SAS,

ArcView/ArcGIS), team leadership (forest management plan), tree identification and

taxonomy (dendrology), quantitative analysis, and oral/written communication.

Perhaps the most important skill that I have gained from Stockton, however, is the

motivation to seek knowledge on my own. Over the course of my undergraduate study, I

have read countless articles, scientific and otherwise, for my own benefit or for leisure

activity. I feel that this thirst for knowledge will serve me better in my future career in

academia than any other skill that I have gained thus far. It is from Stockton College, and

the incredible faculty and courses that I have interacted with, that I have gained these skills

that will help to shape the rest of my life.

Artifact #3: Tree Identification Report - Dendrology Course

My third artifact from my career at the Richard Stockton College is a tree

identification report (see PDF file) from Professor Zimmermann’s Dendrology course.

This course, in addition to being my favorite course that I have taken at Stockton, was also

the most rewarding. The assignment that I have included is an example of the “Mystery

Tree” assignments, where Professor Zimmermann would tell the class to use our acquired

dendrology skills to identify an unknown species based on morphology. The entire class

was based on in-field tree identification and taxonomy, and the information that I learned

in the class has stuck with me more so than any other class that I have taken.

The skills that this class imparted upon me (tree identification and taxonomy) are

particularly valuable to me as I enter graduate study. I will be an instructor for the

undergraduate dendrology lab at Yale University, and it is because of the class at Stockton

that I was able to obtain this position. My duties will involve taking the class into the field

for tree identification, and I will be utilizing the skills I gained in Professor Zimmermann’s

class to teach.

Aside from the class that I will be teaching this fall, I will continue to develop the

skills that I learned in the dendrology class throughout my professional career. That is why

the mystery tree exercise is such an important artifact of my study at Stockton. After I have

completed my education, I will still need to evolve my dendrological knowledge base by

learning the identifying characteristics and taxonomy of new species. The mystery tree

exercises allowed me to practice this by using my own observations and research into

dendrology textbooks to discover the identity of a tree species that I had never before

encountered.

Forestry Management Plan

Artifact #2: Ecological Footprint Exercise - Environmental Issues

In Professor Tait Chirenje’s course, Environmental Issues, students are required to

research and write an ‘Ecological Footprint’ paper, thoroughly detailing

the life cycle and intrinsic costs of an everyday item. Since I am very interested in forest

ecology, I chose to conduct my research on the ecological and social costs of wooden

furniture, one of the most common household items around the world.

This project was very rewarding because, even though I plan on pursuing more of an

applied science degree, I was still alerted to the vast implications that everyday

consumptive decisions have. The project involved very in-depth research into figures such

as average mileage of a truck shipping wood, and the average CO2 emissions of a shipping

fleet (such as the one utilized by IKEA). In order to do this, I had to call representatives of

harvesting and producing companies, and I had to locate specific information from a

plethora of Internet sources. 

This project focused on enforcing the ability to retrieve valid

information and to present it in a readable and efficient manner. I feel this is a vital skill to

have in the scientific realm, for tasks such as report writing where a large quantity of data

is at hand and the target audience needs to be educated in the results of the research.

In addition to data retrieval and report writing, this project gave me additional

motivation for studying forest ecology as a graduate student. My report showed how large

the emissions of greenhouse gases associated with the wooden furniture industry are, and

these can only be reduced through sustainable forestry practices and increased public

awareness of environmental issues.

Artifact 1: Ecological Forest Management course

The focus of Professor Zimmermann’s course, Ecological Forest Management, is to

learn how to manage forests for a variety of objectives (rather than simply for profit) and to

apply skills that we have gained across our coursework to create a comprehensive forest

management plan (see Appendix #1) for the Stockton campus. In order to do this, while

simultaneously gaining an appreciation for the depth and extent of managing forests,

students were divided into teams and given complete autonomy in the observation,

collection, and analysis of data.

As the project leader for my particular group, I gained valuable experience as a

project leader during this course. My responsibilities included managing the data

collection efforts of 3 other individuals, coordinating the objectives of all 4 group members,

motivating the team to complete this daunting task in the very limited timeframe, and

organizing/editing our findings and suggestions into presentable media (PowerPoint

presentation and Word document).

Since I will be involved in forest ecology in my professional career and in my

graduate studies, this course was extremely valuable to me. Aside from its teambuilding

value, the course allowed me to begin viewing forests as valuable from a range of

perceptions. Not only are forests valuable for timber production, but they are also vital for

improvement of water quality in local ecosystems, they provide habitat for countless fauna,

and they improve local air quality. The creation of an ecological forest management plan

encompasses all of these facets, and gave me great experience working with forests at a

management level that I will be able to take with me to graduate school and to use later in

life in my professional career.

Resume

Qualifications

Determined professional with a passion for conserving the world’s natural resources through applied

research. Background includes professional experience working with the New Jersey Division of Parks

and Forestry, and international NGO experience as an intern for the Gaia Environmental Trust, based in

Zimbabwe, South Africa. Technical skills include advanced knowledge in the full Microsoft Office suite,

proficiency in geographic information systems (GIS) software, experience in the creation of a

comprehensive ecological forest management plan, and in SAS statistical analysis software.

Professional Experience

New Jersey Division of Parks and Forestry:

Resource Interpretive Specialist, Cheesequake State Park (05/08 –09/09)

• Public education of environmental issues

• Organized and instructed environmental education programs, including kayak eco-tours of salt

marsh ecosystems in Central New Jersey

• Banding and monitoring of NJ migratory bird species, namely Osprey (Pandion haliaetus)

Chick banding and GIS mapping of nesting sites

• Forest management experience in maintaining Atlantic White-cedar habitat

Gaia Environmental Trust:

Student Intern, Member of the Board of Trustees (09/09 – Present)

• Coordinate the actions of environmental NGOs in South Africa & Zimbabwe to increase

efficiency in response to environmental crises

• Secure funding for South African environmental organizations

• Promote student interest in fostering environmental awareness in developing nations

Board of Trustees Distinguished Student Fellow:

Recipient & Researcher (10/09 – Present)

• Project Title: “Aggregation and Overall Trend Analysis in the Long-term Dataset from the Joint

Richard Stockton College/NJ DEP Chamaecyparis thyoides Ecosystem Project”

• Project involves statistical analyses of 19 years of data collected from Atlantic White-cedar

research in an effort to predict diversity and stand composition of this species

• Research will be published in April 2010 and made available for the public in Spring 2010.

Education

1. Yale University (2010 -)

School of Forestry and Environmental Science

Master of Forest Science (MFS) candidate

Concentration in Forest Ecology, Stand Dynamics, and Applied Genetics

2. The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey (2007-2010)

Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science, 2010

- Recipient: Board of Trustees Fellowship for Distinguished Students

- Recipient: Five (5) consecutive semesters of Dean’s List honors

3. Muhlenberg College (2006-2007)

Major: Pre-medicine