Samm Kaiser

she/her
Undergraduate Fellow
Team Humans

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

I am a returner, this is my second summer here. I came to Tyson last summer because more than anything, I wanted to spend the summer outside. I don’t remember why, I was not a particularly outdoorsy person. I was on Pawpaw Patrol, which as promised, was outside all the time. It was a really fun experience. I want to be a science communicator, and so I needed to see what field work actually looks like, and I felt like I would have more credibility with scientists if I had experience doing that actual work. After last year, it felt like the natural next step to be on the education team, seeing more behind the scenes of a field station and doing communication work.

What surprised you about this summer?

I've actually been itching to be in the field this summer in a way that I wasn't expecting. I don’t have to mentally prepare to go out into the field every day, but it was also fun. You see lots of animals and learn about cool plants and feel very connected with the land, in a way that working in an office doesn’t really get you. Which is why I’m always out on the back deck.

What does your independent project look like?

Last year, trying to learn all these new plants, I was completely overwhelmed by all the different resources. We had a list of woody species, a PowerPoint with only herbaceous species in the valleys, and these extremely heavy books. I never knew which resource to go to. I wanted to create a resource that has all of the plants of Tyson and the bare minimum you need to identify them. The [Flora of Tyson] Instagram is gonna be extremely simple for that reason, it is going to be a streamlined resource. If you're looking at a plant at Tyson, hopefully by the time I'm done with it, it will probably be somewhere on that page and you will have the information you need to confirm whether or not that's the plant.

It was supposed to be just a resource for undergrad fellows. Since then, seeing how excited people are about it, it's kind of grown into more of a showcasing for the general public. A lot of the plants we have here are also in the city, so I'm hoping it'll be a resource for the St. Louis community as well.

Beyond your independent project, how is working on the education team?

I love it, ‘cuz I feel like we do a bunch of random stuff. Some days we’re doing some really nitty gritty reflection, like, how are we addressing certain social issues within science? How are we making sure that everyone feels welcome here? How do we intentionally build a strong and inclusive community? And other days, it’s like, what candy do people want at colloquium? Do the cars have gas? That range is really nice. I think if it was the big stuff all the time, it would feel unapproachable. I like to think that Tyson is moving in the right direction, but there is always more work to do. It can be a scary thing, so it’s nice that our team also like, does the dishes when no one else wants to. There are tasks that are achievable while we chip away at the loftier goals.

Do you see yourself doing this work in the future? How might Tyson inform your future work?

Yeah, so, I don’t really know what I’m doing with my life. After this summer, I have a one-year position as a youth organizer for the Jewish Youth Climate Movement. Our work here is very conducive to that, because that'll be a lot of organizing meetings and working with young people in the environmental realm. And I think the culture is gonna be pretty similar. This feels like kind of a direct pathway to that specific job. Beyond that, I don't really know.