Zoey Ziegler

she/her
High School Apprentice
Plant Disease Team

What’s inspired you this summer?

I have two little stories about that. Me and my mom went to the research showcase – it was the beginning of the summer, before the TERAs joined. All of the PIs presented their projects for the summer, and they were super cool. My mom is a biomedical instructor and she's always been into science. So she's like, Zoey, this is so cool, like, I cannot believe that you get to do something in this place.

And then after, there was a community dinner, and it was also the Pride Celebration. So we had gayke [gay cake]. And then Kim Medley started talking about her own experience, and the gayke last year, and the overall acceptance of the community. I just thought that was really powerful. At that moment, I felt that I wanted to be in this community: I want to make friends with these people, I want to do science with them. That was such a good moment.

And then two, my mentors have just been really good. I had vacation the first week, and when I came back I felt a little bit behind. But my mentors never made me feel that I was less experienced or valued. Like, if I was taking a longer time doing surveys, I wasn't inconveniencing them.

Do you see yourself doing this sort of work in the future?

So right now I'm leaning, no, but that might just be because I'm hot and tired right now… But there are so many factors at play, and I've only barely scratched the surface of what we're working on. I might want to focus more on environmental studies, connecting politics and economics into it. More on the people side. Mostly, I really want to – it's gonna sound really cliché – but I want to leave the world better. I want to do something about all of our environmental issues. I know there's a long list, but I just want to feel like I'm helping in some way.