多才多艺的女人

There is something quietly superhuman about 茱莉亚·波特曼19岁. 在创造记录的同时 never missing a practice—as a member of the varsity swim team, she is double majoring in biology and environmental science, minoring in German, and seems to be everywhere at once, wholeheartedly embracing every opportunity WC has to offer.

 

As vice-president of the Garden Club, she has helped raise bees and harvest honey, labored over huckleberries and other native plants, and composted table scraps from 餐厅. As a permaculture intern, she helped foster the garden’s transition to a sustainable ecosystem that recently earned it certification as a model conservation 景观. 

She helped research African American publishing history using Global Information Systems (GIS) technology as an intern in the GIS lab. She is a member of the Honor Board, the Student Environmental Alliance, and the National Leadership and National Environmental 荣誉的社会. She has been named Centennial Conference Swimmer of the week twice and Shorewoman of the Week seven times in three seasons. 她是德国的主席 Club, a member of the National German Honor Society, and last summer organized her own trip to study German for the Natural Sciences at the University of Freiburg in Germany with a grant from the Cater Society, of which she is student vice-president.

Plus, she has taken full advantage of WC’s summer science research internships.

“I have been really impressed with 茱莉亚's drive to learn everything she can,” says Robin Van Meter, assistant professor of environmental science/studies and biology 也是波特曼的顾问. “Her time management skills amaze me. 她在游泳时变戏法 team with other extracurricular activities while still maintaining a 4.0 GPA和工作 和我一起在实验室. On top of that, she is friendly and easy-going, very collaborative, and has a natural gift for research. 和她一起工作很愉快.”

Between her freshman and sophomore years, 茱莉亚 was a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) intern at UC Santa Cruz studying the impact of rising water 鱼的温度. She loved the science, and had dreamed of becoming a marine biologist, living near the water, which was part of what drew her from her hometown of Palatine, Illinois, to 九州娱乐官网.

“I always felt like a water baby,” she says. “And 九州娱乐官网 immediately felt 像家一样.” But hovering over fish and their offspring for 11 weeks made her question whether she really wanted to spend all of her daylight hours in a lab.

“I love hard science,” she says. “But I want to know what I can do with it, how I 能用它来改变世界吗.”

It was an internship the following summer doing bat research at Eastern Kentucky University and the Daniel Boone National Forest—through the National Science Foundation and its Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program—that inspired her to think beyond 实验室. 甚至在水面之外.

"I fell in love with the forest,” she says. “And one of the best parts for me was shadowing a Forest Service employee who is involved in just about every project there. She helps with bat and bird and plant surveys and puts them all together in reports that are really about ‘How can we use this information to better manage the forest, help the wildlife, improve the experience for visitors?“我不确定具体是什么 I’ll end up doing—there’s so much still to explore—but I thought that was pretty cool, using science to make things better.”

At her graduation ceremonies in May 2019. 茱莉亚 was recognized with the Casey Medal, awarded by the faculty to a woman considered outstanding in the qualities of scholarship, character, leadership and campus citizenship. Beginning in Fall 2020, she is studying for a master of science degree in biology at James Madison University.