How are you inspired by science?

I think the possibilities and the different innovations or discoveries that you can make using science are really intriguing. It inspires me to work harder. I’ve probably been interested in science since middle school, but ever since I started the SIFT [Shaw Institute for Field Training] program in the summer between my freshman and sophomore year, I've been getting really into science and environmental science.

What has been a high and low point this summer?

A low point is when I was photo tagging and this entire batch of photos was empty. I had to go through 60 photos and just say “empty” for every single one. I guess in the past week that's been the lowest point, which is pretty good. For a high point, probably that one time I got to go into Tyson and sort ticks, which I thought was going to be pretty boring, but it was pretty interesting. I spent half the time learning how to identify ticks, and then I spent the other part identifying ticks on my own, which was really fun. Plus at the end when we put the ticks in the little jars, it was really satisfying. I thought, “oh, I was able to sort all these ticks and pick them out from the tick trap.” I felt pretty productive and confident, like I knew what I was doing.

Do you have any thoughts on the relationship between science and social change?

The biggest part of science and social change is encouraging people to take care of the environment. I had a conversation with my mom about this recently and she was saying, “oh, humans are the most important, so that's what we need to study”, but then you also think “well, anything that changes the environment affects humans too.” So you have to put the environment first, also. It's not just humans. Anything that changes will affect humans, no matter what, because we're all on the same planet.