Graduate School

As I am sitting here in a graduate seminar for “How to do a literature review”, I am shocked at how much new information I’m learning.  Who would’ve thought the library was more than just books and computers you can use while you’re on campus.

Having this new knowledge is a little intimidating. I don’t know how I went through four years of college without knowing all this information. I can’t help but wonder what my overall GPA would be if I had known this since the start of my freshman year.  

The transition into graduate school is definitely a lot more demanding than I was expecting. Before the semester started, I thought all I needed was a new backpack to really, as they say, “Fake it ‘til you make it”. I can’t lie, I’ve been stressed out and the littlest things annoy me. I know they shouldn’t and as I get into the groove of things, I’m learning to just go with it.

Things I do find annoying:

•  BlackBoard 9 – I just don’t like it
•   Not having a personal chef, massage therapist or chauffer
•  Pants with fake pockets
• Vine videos that aren’t funny and truly waste my time  
•  Bicyclists who ride their bikes on the sidewalk and almost run me over

Here is a #Selfie of myself at my desk.

I really enjoy all my classes this semester. I feel that each one plays an important role in not only developing my project, but myself.

Graduate School Project
Though this is only my first semester of graduate school, I would like to focus my research on how minorities get into careers in natural resources and related sciences. It has been a big leap from the physical sciences into the social sciences and I am quickly adjusting. As I am exposed to new literature every day, I get a better handle on how I want to study this. I have also improved in several areas, all of which I am pretty proud of myself for:

• APA Citation
• Googling relevant topics to my research
• Multitasking 

I'm excited about my research topic even though I haven't gotten everything quite figured out. I'm glad that I was convinced to stay here to do my Master's on this cross-disciplinary topic. I think it would have been much more difficult if I had gone elsewhere. Wreck'em!

Aside: I honestly thought in graduate school, I’d get more sleep.I don't know what made me think that. 

Flowers Everywhere - Summer 2013

When one thinks of New Mexico, one is quick to think of aliens, Billy the Kid, caverns and maybe even a desert. Lying in the southeast corner of New Mexico, is the tiny town of Milnesand. In this small community, I was  stationed to help with the management of the Milnesand Prairie Preserve. I was given the opportunity to have a great hands-on learning experience with Tish McDaniels, my supervisor. Upon my arrival on June 9, 2013,I felt that it was more arid then one would expect. It turns out that the area has been in a drought for the past three years. This has been the same just an hour east in Texas.

Luckily, Milnesand and the surrounding communities received a few inches of rain the second week of my internship to hold them over for the summer. During our first week, Matt DeAngelo, (the other intern) and I drove around to map trees that will be taken down, due to them not being native to the southern shortgrass prairie area. In my search for non-native trees, I was more excited to see the forbs that were coming up from the recent rain. Forbs, like purple prairie clover, scarlet globemallow, silverleaf nightshade, rushpea, and Indian blanket were very showy. Being a girl, I was overly joyed and excited for the forbs.

What girl doesn’t love flowers, especially when mother nature hand delivers it (and it's your middle name; Florentina). I understand though that it was the recent rain in the summer that helped these flowers bloom. I was hopeful that more rain would come as the summer progressed

The community has been very receptive of The Nature Conservancy and their goals in southeastern New Mexico. I feel blessed that the community has welcomed us as interns with open arms. I know that in other areas or even other organizations this might not happen. It’s been great to sit down with the locals and listen to their families history of being homesteaders, to farmers. From that, they advanced to being interested in conservation for species like the Lesser Prairie Chicken and Dunes Sagebrush Lizard. I truly admire them, because I know how hard as a farmer/rancher it might be to veer away from the norm, for the bigger picture of protecting nature and preserving life.