Laura Tayon

High School Apprentice

Laura is in her first year as a TERA teen. Even after just a week into her time here at Tyson, she already helped the tick team set up traps in the forest and pull the critters off tape to analyze them in the lab. Much more than can be said for most high school students in classroom-based labs.

Is there anything about the Tyson community that surprised you?

“It’s kind of what I expected but I’m also surprised at how passionate a lot of the people are. It’s a much nicer community than I expected. Becoming an ecologist is a lot more complex than I realized, too. This book I’m reading, How to Do Ecology, teaches you how to go through college, graduate school and all of that. I was surprised by how complicated it is.”

How do you like working on an actual research team?

“It’s a lot of work, but really fun and interesting. I like working with animals more than plants. I’m working on my own projects, on parasites and birds. In the future, I’m not really sure what I’m going to do so I’m just keeping my options open. But for now, ecology is my home.”

Laura worked with Solny Adalsteinsson's Tick & Wildlife Ecology team during summer 2019. Learn more about their prescribed fire and tick-borne disease ecology research here.