This experience was so much more than I ever could have imagined. To build a little
background, I am someone who has always struggled with self doubt when it comes to my
place in the STEM career path. The persistent habit of constantly comparing myself to others is
something I was very acquainted with, and struggle with sometimes still, but this program flipped
some kind of switch within me. The first day of the program I was feeling intimidated like always,
but the level of comfort provided by Kelsey (on top of a REALLY cool introduction tour of the
Natural History... Read More
Posted by kmyule on August 8, 2023 - 11:02am in Undergraduate Students
Posted by kmyule on July 28, 2023 - 9:54am in Undergraduate Students
At the start of this program there were a lot of things I didn’t know. I didn’t know that frogs don’t have diaphragms like humans, and therefore breathe through their skin and manually draw air into their mouths to push towards their lungs. I didn’t know that locusts don’t start out as locusts, but instead, certain species of grasshoppers become locusts when they are in dense contact with others of the same species, triggering chemical changes in the grasshoppers’ brains. I didn’t know that melons and avocados are actually berries, and common fruits considered to be such, such as... Read More
Posted by kmyule on July 18, 2023 - 4:04pm in Undergraduate Students
By Ava Claus
I can still remember the first time I walked into the collections vividly. The classroom where we would spend the next six weeks learning how to identify insects, digitize specimens, and prepare samples to be DNA barcoded greeted me with taxidermy animal heads covering an entire wall. Walking through the rest of the collections is a similarly astounding experience; giant replicas of bugs hang from the ceiling, and the building is full of cabinets upon cabinets of samples. From the moment I stepped foot into the building, I knew the next six weeks would... Read More
Posted by kmyule on July 12, 2023 - 2:43pm in Undergraduate Students
By Alexander Fenlon
During the first week of our program, we visited a lab associated with the Central Arizona–Phoenix Long-Term Ecological Research as part of our campus tour. Gawking at a worktable covered in dusty plant samples, taking puzzled glances at pouches filled with nothing but atmospheric gases, and snaking past each other as we crammed into a room-sized freezer, we were privy to myriad facets of our local ecosystem in perfect isolation: crystal-clear data.
We were waving our goodbyes when a pleading cry was issued from the end of the corridor.... Read More
Posted by kmyule on January 11, 2023 - 11:56am in Collections
Applications are now open for this unique, funded, and hands-on opportunity for students underrepresented in biodiversity science to participate in natural history collections research
... Read More
Posted by kmyule on August 7, 2022 - 5:40pm in Undergraduate Students
This is a guest post by 2022 JEDI Biocollections Summer Scholars Program alum, Jacob Kerwin.
Herping and Derping:
When I first came to Arizona I never thought I’d see pine trees and running water... Read More
Posted by kmyule on August 5, 2022 - 12:33pm in Undergraduate Students
This is a guest post by 2022 JEDI Biocollections Summer Scholars Program alum, Emi Sarmiento.
Coming into the program, I honestly didn’t know what to expect. I’m an undergraduate biological sciences major that loves nature and truly enjoys all aspects of science, but I was confused about what I could do with that information. I had little understanding of what a biocollection was or how it was important. I honestly had just hoped that the program would give me some clarity on where to go next. Fortunately, I learned that you could really do anything if you... Read More
Posted by kmyule on August 4, 2022 - 10:44am in Undergraduate Students
This is a guest post by 2022 JEDI Biocollections Summer Scholars Program alum, Gilma De Leon.
Week 1 – First Week
As the first week of the program got closer, I felt relaxed and excited... Read More
Posted by kmyule on July 26, 2022 - 6:28pm in Undergraduate Students
This is a guest post by 2022 JEDI Biocollections Summer Scholars Program alum, Iran Esquivel.
What did I think about my experiences with the JEDI Scholars program?
In my head, for the longest time, “scientist” meant engineers, chemists, and the occasional geneticists. Science had to be moving and man had to be in charge for me to call something science. My parents couldn’t tell me what a scientist did, they had only known customer service, and my cousins had only ever seen lab coats on TV. We know what mechanics do, they fix cars.... Read More
Posted by kmyule on July 26, 2022 - 5:07pm in Undergraduate Students
This is a guest post by 2022 JEDI Biocollections Summer Scholars Program alum, Tommy Thiatmaja.
It was a starry night and my phone showed that it was 100+ degrees. I approached a white sheet with a UV light, equipped with a strange tubular device and a vial of what smelled like alcohol and acetone. The insects were buzzing loudly around me with some of them flying into my ears, eyes, and even my pants. I put the tubular device to my mouth and began to capture insects by literally sucking them into a tube with my mouth. After spending an hour catching bugs... Read More