Althea Bartz Willis

she/her
Undergraduate Fellow
Tick and Wildlife Ecology Team

How did you get here? What brought you to Tyson?

Well, I was a SIFTer in 2020, so when COVID started, and then I became a TERA. It was still that year of hybrid – some in-person activity, but mainly virtual. I felt like I didn't really get the whole experience, so I wanted to come back, and I came back for another year of TERA. That was great, I loved it, I loved my team!

What prompted you to apply for SIFT?

My biology teacher sent out the link to everybody and said, “This is a really cool program, you should apply.” I saw it was through WashU and I was interested. So I applied on my phone, like walking through the hallways. I got in months later and figured, “I'll try it.” I wasn't even interested in ecology until I did SIFT. I wanted to be a doctor.

How has Tyson changed? How does this summer feel different?

Honestly, I feel like not much has changed this year so far as an undergrad. I think that's such an accolade of the TERA program. You're really doing collegiate-level research as a high school student, like genuinely.

Why did you choose your specific team?

Originally I chose Tick and Wildlife because I've never been that big of a plant person, which has changed a little bit – shout out to Erin O’Connell. I guess I just, I liked it so much that I decided to stay.

What is something others may not know about your team?

I feel like a lot of people, when they think of the Tick and Wildlife Team, they think of ticks. We do a lot with ticks but we also do the Life Plan Project. I feel like not a lot of other undergrads know about it but it's just as important as stuff we do with ticks.

Are you doing an independent project? What does it look like?

Well, right now, the idea is to try to gauge people's attitudes about ticks. We talk about ticks at Tyson anecdotally; “this is how you protect yourself against them, there’s a lot of ticks at Tyson, etc.” We do a lot of studying ticks on my team, but we don’t necessarily talk about their impacts on morale and our community. I’m interested in how they affect the humans of Tyson.

How has Tyson informed your future plans?

It has impacted my goals by applying to WashU. I don't know if I would've done that because I didn't necessarily want to stay in Missouri. I just loved the community here. I’m a rising freshman in Environmental Analysis. I would like to do an undergraduate research experience next summer and hopefully get the opportunity to travel abroad.