Elena Powell

any pronouns
High School Apprentice
Mosquito Team

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

I had a friend in school and she had been in the SIFT cohort before me. She always talked about it. I talked about a bunch of the different things that I was interested in the science research class that we shared together and she told me she thought I would really like this program. So that’s how I ended up in SIFT last year. After I did all of that, I heard about Tyson and TERA being muttered around. It seemed really cool and I really wanted to do it. They were saying that TERA is more lab focused, whereas SIFT was like, you're outside all the time. So I applied and now I'm here.

Why did you choose your specific team?

I've been super interested in entomology my whole life. I thought, a bug team!? That's really cool. I saw the Tick Team too. I was interested in that but thought, how much do I wanna have ticks on me? They also weren’t taking TERAs, so it worked out. The Mosquito Team was my first choice.

What has surprised you about this summer?

How willing I am to get bitten by mosquitoes. I really didn't know that I was this chill with nature and everything, and I guess that's been forced on me in a way — it's in a good way. I was put into this environment where we are literally in the forest, you're gonna get ticks on you. All of that's happening, but we're able to have the lab setting and we're able to have places where we feel like that sense of urbanized comfort, I guess. I just moved to the city and I've been going there now instead of living in the county. And that's even been a big change. Having those moments of comfort and also getting to connect with nature and be in it, and see other people enjoying it too, is really awesome.

What activities/moments have made you feel most connected to the Tyson community?

I think a lot of the community events that we have are super helpful, the colloquium and stuff. There are people that I didn't even know existed here and now I'm able to at least see their face and recognize them. It's kind of crazy seeing everyone just be in a room together. I'm a high school student and I'm seeing undergrads, grads, and post-docs that are learning the same stuff as me at the same time. I think the community here is so good at taking you where you are — you're not seen as lesser because you don't know as much. Nobody feels pressured that they can't ask a question. It's very like a chill environment that's very needed and refreshing, especially for a lot of high schoolers.