I grew up on trees, rolling down grassy hills, and swimming in creeks that ran next to my house. It was the best childhood ever and for some reason I could not wait for it to end and for me to become an adult. Now that adulthood seems freakishly close, I sometimes wish I could go back to being 11 years old and having a clubhouse among the branches of a plum tree. Our pet was a toad, which escaped the crate we had created for him and seemed to have survived the fall because we did not see him again after that. As an 11 year-old I failed to take care of a toad, but then again it was probably fine without my help in the first place. As some version of an adult that I am today, I hope to do a better job taking care of the planet than I did of a toad when I was 11.

Our clubhouse plum tree looked a lot like this.

I almost want to say that the world is a playground but it feels more like someone than something, and it seems wiser than me. In an effort to catch up and understand Earth a little better I decided to apply for EcoLead, a global, environmental leadership exploration program, designed by faculty and staff from the Environmental Science and Policy department and Student Life at St. Edward’s University.

Ecolead has been an amazing experience that takes me back to the creeks, trees, and grassy hills from my childhood, and reminds me that adulthood is as exciting as it seemed when I was 11. I’ve met other tree people, creek lovers, and grassy trailblazers. We are recording our experiences in a blog called A Costa Rican Almanac. In our entries we also identify current environmental issues, do research on them, and offer sustainable solutions. To see how our view of the world evolves as we go through this experience, follow the link bellow. No action is too small when the needs of the world are great.

http://sites.stedwards.edu/mikewa-ensp234901sp2016/

Bioinformatics junior Isavannah Reyes received notification of her acceptance into the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) EXceptional Research Opportunities Program (EXROP).  She will work in the Protein Design Lab with Dr. David Baker (University of Washington, Seattle), one of 125 scientist mentors in the program, on a research project this summer as well as visit HHMI headquarters in Chevy Chase, MD (suburban Washington, DC) to present the results of her project.

Last summer, Isavannah participated in the McNair Scholars Program working with Dr. Charles Hauser (Assoc. Prof. of Bioinformatics) on a project she presented at the Texas Academy of Science:  RNA-seq Analysis of Phosphate-stressed C. reinhardtii Cells.

Congratulations, Isavannah!