How are you inspired by science?

To me it's like art, but better. It advances knowledge and it's creative. It’s a place to put my curiosity, and I think it's a lot of fun. I have always loved science and always wanted to do it, especially biology. I plan on majoring in biology or biomedical sciences when I go to college.

What has been a highlight from this summer?

I just like being a part of science in general. Helping people with their research projects is helping contribute knowledge to the scientific community. Normally I like to do more medically-oriented things, because I definitely can see the direct impact of that. But when it comes to ecology, it's a much more long-term thing, just helping slowly contribute knowledge to the field of environmental sciences and ecology. It's a very slow process, but I feel like I’m making a difference.

How do you see the relationship between science and social change?

With COVID the population has to know more about biology, such as how pathogens spread. So science doesn’t seem so alien. I also think COVID increased the community aspect of doing science. A lot of researchers during the pandemic couldn't just get together in their own teams and do their own thing. They had to come together. So I think science is becoming a more inclusive field. COVID also made the importance of science communication more clear. A lot of times scientific papers will sound convoluted, but in this case they have to communicate clearly to the public what is going on.