During the summer of 2023, prior to the introductory year of the program, I was instructed to create a mind map to explore my research interests. Through reading journal articles, watching videos, and having experiences such as museum visits and nature tours, I was able to study a wide variety of topics. Overall, I studied a wide variety of topics, but was most interested in entomology, specifically pollinators.
During my first year, I worked with my mentor Dr. Megan Reich at the University of Ottawa (megan.reich@uottawa) on a proposed project about the migratory route over the Appalachian Mountains of monarch butterflies. This proposed project was used to create a poster to enter into a science fair, and was expected to be carried out during the summer of 2024. I participated in the 2024 Somers Science Fair with this project.