I grew up in Lamoine, ME, about 30 mins from Acadia National Park on Mount Desert Island. I attended University of Massachusetts, Amherst where I majored in Environmental Science. The summer before my final year at UMass Amherst I worked as a research assistant at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory (RMBL) in Gothic, CO. The project’s focus was on carbon cycling in alpine river floodplains. Here at Dartmouth, my Ph.D. research shares a similar focus on carbon cycling in soil, but in the temperate forests in the Northeast, US instead of in river valleys of the Rockies. I was interested in serving as a SEPA mentor because I am interested in demonstrating to young students that scientific understanding is valuable and can be gained through positive experiences in the classroom.