Final Reflection
An End of Summer Review and Looking Forward
Describe your project/experiment and the stage it is in at the conclusion of your internship. What are the next steps for your project/experiment after you leave?
I was the first intern to work on this bat project which was really exciting. Before this internship I knew absolutely nothing about bats or even that were bats in Chicago! My project was comparing detection methods for monitoring bat communities and diversity in Chicago. There were two types of monitors, passive and active. The passive monitor was set up and functioned for two weeks while I went out three times with the active monitor to perform bat-walks. Bat-walks were a one hour walking transect on a set path that occured on good weather nights half an hour after sunset. All recorded bat calls were run through a bat identification software called SonoBat and then put into CSV files for analysis. I was able to do some very basic analysis on the bat data. What I found was that while it seems the active monitor functioned slightly better, there was not enough bata (bat data) to give conclusive results. Now that I’ve left, the next steps are really to gather more data with both devices and perform more analysis to see if we can come to a conclusion on how comparable the two monitor types are.
How have you changed over the summer (personally, professionally, etc.)?
I started this summer as a timid and nervous wreck (with really cool hair) who knew nothing about working with birds or bats or urban wildlife in general. Thanks to Jazmin as well as everyone in the Urban Wildlife Institute, I have grown as an intern as well as a leader. I have learned how to lead and engage high school students with work they may not be interested in. I’ve learned how to work with birds, turtles, and acoustic monitoring. I’ve become more confident in who I am, what I do, and what I want to do. When being interviewed for the position, Jazmin asked me what urban wildlife I would be and every animal I’d even seen in a city left my brain except for house sparrow. I am glad to say that my answer has changed from house sparrow to raccoon, which I think is truly a reflection of my own growth this summer.
Describe some of your favorite moments over the summer (e.g. something new you learned, someone you met, someone you worked with, something that inspired you).
There were so many favorite moments this summer. The best thing about this summer was meeting, befriending, and working with Eden Nitza. Her love for working with animals is incredible and her hardworking and loving spirit is truly infectious. It was hard to be around her and not have a great time. Working with Eden was definitely the highlight of my summer because she’s so cool and she inspired some newfound passions.
Another highlight, while not successful, and yes I’m mad about it, was the Koi Hunt. We did not catch it but we had fun bonding over shared fury and determination. We ended up not having enough time to commit to trying to catch it, but that’s ok. I think we were all a little doubtful that we’d catch it.
Describe some of the challenges you faced over the summer. How did you problem-solve them?
One of the biggest challenges I faced was leading with four high school interns whose personalities did not mesh well. I worked closely with Eden to figure out how to make our team as productive as it could be while maintaining peace. There were times when it was difficult to motivate the high schoolers and we learned very quickly that you can’t force interest on to someone who doesn’t want to do something. It took a while be Eden and I eventually got to know the high schoolers and learned what daily tasks they actively liked to do as well as who they liked to work with. After that, our team functioned well and we developed a rhythm that worked for us.
Another challenge I faced this summer was working with wild animals. I can’t say I’ve ever had an interest in handling animals of any sort for any reason, but this summer I had to get over that. I was the only intern working on Saturday mornings, which meant that I spent every Saturday hoping for no herons on the ground so I wouldn’t have to touch any animals. That rarely happened my first few weeks at the internship. While I’m still hesitant at grabbing live animals (especially loud bite-y birds), it is now something that I can do and that I’d want to do again.
What skills (technical, professional, etc.) have you acquired over the summer? How do you see them benefiting you in the future?
I learned how to use two types of acoustic monitors this summer, the SM2BAT and Echo Meter Touch Pro with iPad. I also learned how to properly handle live birds, turtles, and small mammals. Professionally, I learned how to tailor resumes and cover letters to jobs as well as how hiring committees work. As of right now, I can see myself in an urban wildlife career, so I gained useful experience with working with live animals. I now also know and understand the benefit of highly tailored cover letters and what employers look for.
What are you most proud of accomplishing this summer? Why?
This has been a summer full of growth and accomplishments. I’m so proud of everything I accomplished and what I was able to do. Firstly, I'm proud of myself for getting and completing an internship. I’ve worked through my entire college career, but this was my first “off-campus” job that related to my field. My nearly three years at Old Navy could not have prepared me for a summer of working with wild animals. Secondly, I’m proud of myself for doing things that were challenging. I may not have liked touching the birds (dead or alive) or carrying the boat everyday, but I stuck with it, and it got easier. I am inherently a nervous person so this internship was not easy at first. But I did it. And I loved it.
Where do you see your relationship with your site/site supervisor going after this summer? Do you hope to stay connected with them? Why/why not? How do you plan to stay connected with them?
I hope to keep in touch with Jazmin now that this internship is over. I think she is a great professional contact for me and she has offered help with resume review and grad school applications, if I ever need it. There is a year long research internship in the Urban Wildlife Institute that I plan to apply to when it opens up next year and I know Jazmin will put in a good word for me. Because Jazmin is a masters student at DePaul, I plan on keeping in touch by emailing every so often and possibly getting lunch with her to catch up.
What did you learn about yourself? Do you envision a future career in research? Why/why not?
I learned that I loved working at a zoo more than I thought I would. I also learned that I really enjoy doing hands on research. I enjoyed going on the bat walks and looking at the data as it came in. I learned that I enjoy working with and learning about animals more than I thought I would and I would love to keep doing research with them. My ideal job, I think, would be to spend my time conducting research and performing data analysis. I am not a fan of reading or writing scientific papers but I love the research side of science. While I’ve known this about myself for a while, this internship solidified it for me. I performed more research and analysis and did not read many papers this summer and I had a blast. I know this is not the most realistic of dreams, but I do want to keep doing research. There’s something extremely satisfying about working through and completing projects and studying that I really enjoy and would love to continue doing work that allows me to learn, problem solve, and grow.
What goals do you have after this summer? What are your plans to keep your professional momentum going (e.g. classes, applying for internships again, graduate school, full-time jobs, etc.)?
Now that my internship has ended, I am going to finish my senior year at DePaul. I will spend this next year in classes, working at the CSH Advising Office, and completing my undergraduate thesis with Dr. Jess Vogt, focusing on how urban policy trickles down from the federal level to the city level and how it affects urban forests. I know that I won’t want to continue through to graduate school immediately, so after this academic year, I plan to apply to internships and jobs. As of right now, I would love to work with the Urban Wildlife Institute again and so I am planning on applying to a year long research internship they have.