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
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
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
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
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
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
A unique, funded, and hands-on opportunity for students underrepresented in biodiversity science to participate in natural history collections research
This is a guest post by 2021 JEDI Biocollections Summer Scholars Program alum, Marcus Reid.
Prior to being accepted into this summer program I took a class that met in the Alameda building. Within the first couple of days, we took a brief tour throughout the facility, careful to maintain social distancing requirements. I distinctly remember standing on my tippy toes to see what specimens were in each drawer, which gave me a better angle to see what was being highlighted without encroaching on the personal space of... Read More
This is a guest post by 2021 JEDI Biocollections Summer Scholars Program alum, Mary Haddad.
Botany week, where do I even start? I had trouble getting started on this post for a while, wondering how exactly to describe the biocollections experiences I’d had at Alameda. Do I talk about mounting, or specimen collecting or even the intricate... Read More
This is a guest post by 2021 JEDI Biocollections Summer Scholars Program alum, Faith Cisneros.
Consumed by the way each thick hair lay defined, colored like a piece of old dry wood that has begun to fade, I imagined the stiff body revitalizing within moments of focusing on it. I drew in a quick breath of air before I began to untangle what the life of the moth under my microscope must have been like. The white lit background of the microscope quickly faded... Read More