This summer I worked with the Horticulture Department at the Shedd Aquarium tending the grounds and managing the gardens. Individually, I was responsible for overseeing two beds in particular--one bed amended with natural additives to maximize produce nutrition, and one bed left unamended. As part of my project, I decided what to plant in the beds, though the beds had to be nearly identical in their contents to maintain fair comparison. The data collected from my study includes soil analyses for each of the beds, along with two analyses done on the vegetation from each bed (kale and parsley, specifically). The soil samples were gathered at the beginning of the summer, while the plant tissues where collected and analyzed at the midpoint of my internship and at the very end. While I am still waiting for the final plant tissue analysis results, I have not only my data to work with but also data from previous Dean’s Fellows from 2017 and 2018. Once I receive these final results, I will be able to fully move forward with the completion of my project. I hope that future Fellows will carry on with the comparative study, ideally diversifying the study with different choices for plant tissues to analyze or further integration and application within the Shedd community.
Over the course of this summer, I believe I have gained a deeper respect for hard, physical work and for the amount of effort that goes into horticulture in both an urban setting and also at an institution as large and respected as the Shedd. I have continued my professional development in both individual and team-based efforts, and I have learned more about plants and horticulture as a career. Some of my favorite moments from the summer consist of the general and constant flux of information being fed to me. Seemingly random tidbits and facts from my bosses and from the other interns came together to make me into a more well-rounded and capable environmentalist and horticulturist. I will carry these pieces of knowledge with me throughout my career and personal endeavors and, as plant lover, and I am excited to share them with others and continue my growth in this field.
Some of the challenges I faced over the summer include semi-frequent bouts of sheer physical exhaustion, but more importantly, coming to terms with the insane amount of planning, preparation, communication, and organization required to pull off the management of a place like the Shedd’s grounds. I actually had very little responsibility when it came to planning within the department, but watching my bosses manage the grounds was an eye-opener and sent a clear message that horticulture and landscaping is no easy task and that it involves cooperation with many different industries.
Now that my time at the Shedd has come to its end, I hope that my relationship with the people from the Horticulture Department will persist and will continue to support me in my professional development. I have a great appreciation for my time with these people, and returning to the Shedd as a career is something I could definitely envision myself doing if the opportunity presented itself. I plan to keep in contact with my coworkers and superiors, and I think that we will all continue to support each other in our future paths.
After this summer, I definitely still envision for myself a future career in research. Having completed two Dean’s Fellowships at different sites and experiencing what I find to be vastly different and equally exciting aspects of research, I think that I have gained an understanding of research that is developed enough to be certain of wanting a future career in it. In the summer of 2018, I was lucky enough to experience both heavily-involved field work and systematically meticulous lab work. That summer was a charged balance of hands-on conversance and patient execution that kept me on my toes and established my interest in research as a career field. This summer was, in contrast, driven by team-based endeavors and exemplified research not through tactile lab work, but through producing tangible results to aid in a clear, local mission. This seemed to give me a more concrete sense of purpose despite my individual mission and project being less focused than the previous summer, and I believe that the amount of effort put in to receive relatively sparse results in my project is an important lesson in the lengthy and strenuous process of research.
Now that I have completed my internship, I plan to continue and soon finish my studies at DePaul. After I complete my undergraduate degree this Autumn Quarter, I plan to seek a permanent position related to my field of study and hopefully in research. While I would be more than open to beginning an official career in horticulture, my range of experiences in the Dean’s Fellowship program has taught me to never close any doors and to not limit myself to a specific idea of the research that I want to do. Though I have developed a keen passion for horticulture, I have no idea where the future is going to take me, and my interests are too broad to settle quite yet. I would love to one day integrate my horticultural experience with my GIS (Geographic Information Systems) knowledge. I think these two fields mingle more often than I realize, and finding a career that negotiates the two would interest me. Additionally, I plan to return to school for a Master’s degree at some point. I do, however, think it is in my best interest to explore the industry of Environmental Science and all of its relatives and subsets before so that I can execute a degree in a field that is specialized and marketable to a specific career.
I am so grateful for the experiences and knowledge I have gained through the Dean’s Undergraduate Research Fellowship program. This program has provided me with invaluable skills which I will continue to hone and develop in order to establish myself as a formal and successful researcher. I have also accumulated a great amount of confidence in myself and my professional capabilities which I never could have expected a couple years ago. I look forward to seeing what I do with these tools, and I know that I will always have support systems both within DePaul’s CSH programs and the Shedd Aquarium. Now that I find myself on the brink of “real” adulthood and in the face of establishing a career for myself, I could not feel more prepared, qualified, and eager--All thanks to the opportunities made possible by the Dean’s Fellowship program.