Anxiety Fueled Insomnia

Yay for anxiety fueled insomnia driving me out into the ice covered night in search of internets! I wish I had a nice camera to take awesome pictures of the ice encased trees. The light from the street lamps make them look like crystalline sculptures. I also wish I had internet in my dorms so I didn't have to walk to the office to send an email containing yet another draft of my Maryland essay for comments at 11:30pm in the middle of an ice storm. I also wish I had a 550 calorie salted caramel hot chocolate from Starbucks but that doesn't sit well with the fact that I also wish to be fifty pounds lighter. Or that fact that I don't have a car. Or the fact that Starbucks is closed at 11:30pm.

Sigh. I'm going back to bed.

By the way, it's like three pages long. You are welcome to read it...

I am an ideal candidate for acceptance into the University of Maryland’s Biology masters program because of my diverse interests and experiences in the field of environmental science. In the past, whenever I have discussed my plans to go to graduate school in a field related to conservation, the first school that everyone suggested was the University of Maryland. I am highly impressed with your reputation for environmental science and feel that I could really benefit from study at your institution. I would be ecstatic to be able to study under professors like Dr. James Dietz and Dr. Karen Lips, both of which have been influential role models in my career thus far.
I would like to participate in research that will assist decision making involved with species and habitat preservation. Through my undergraduate coursework and associations with scientists at the Smithsonian Institute, I have become quite intrigued with amphibians. These experiences have impressed upon me the utility of studying frogs and salamanders not only as a unique and complex class of animals but also as a means of better understanding their contextual environment. Being such a sensitive bio-indicator, I believe that the study and protection of amphibians is important to the wellbeing of our planet. Another issue that interests me is the evolutionary roots of behaviors. Trying to understand a species ethology without considering historical pressures is like trying to understand a culture without studying its past. I am also intrigued by the challenge of monitoring and protecting species that cover large territories and may cross jurisdictional boundaries such as migratory birds, marine mammals and fish. As such, I hope that studying at Maryland will allow me to strengthen my foundation in theory, scientific methodology and research procedures, as well as analytical and technical skills to allow me to pursue research in these areas of interest as a career.
I have always known that I wanted to be a scientist and I have always been fascinated by the natural world. As I grew and learned I became more and more concerned with the state of our environment but when I was in grade school, I can remember getting the distinct impression that everything in the world had already been discovered and all problems were clear cut and already solved. Being a scientist at heart, I was distraught at the idea that there might be no more questions to ask. I quickly learned that there is of course more unknown in the world than we can ever hope to wonder. This was never more obvious to me than this past summer when I joined a volunteer trip to a reserve in the cloud forests of Ecuador. In a short two weeks I saw more plant and animal species than I could ever hope to name, watched intriguing behavior, and even participated in the discovery of two (as yet unconfirmed but suspected) new species of frogs. There is still so much to learn about the world in which we live and I am excited to be a part of a field that will do so.
I feel that my life experiences have definitely prepared me for graduate study at Maryland University. I grew up in a large family with siblings that sometimes struggled in school. Besides my father, I am the only one in my immediate family who graduated high school in the traditional manner. Academic success is very important to me and while I struggled with the some of the same obstacles as them, it made me stronger in the long run. After watching proudly as my father earned his undergraduate degree after a twenty some year hiatus from attending college, I became the second and only member of my immediate family to graduate college. I am proud to be setting the example of furthering my education to my little sister who is currently studying for her GED and plans to enter the field of conservation science.
I started working as a veterinary assistant when I was fourteen years old, in part to help support my family financially. I am grateful for this as it forced me to become a part of the “real world” early on and helped me to build a solid foundation of experience that has served me well ever since. People have always said that I am mature for my age and I responded by accomplishing as much as my age limitations would tolerate. I participated in the Ohio Post Secondary program in high school and this allowed me to jump start my college career by taking college courses in place of my high school senior curriculum. Starting college a year early helped me to get a jumpstart on my career and catapulted me into the more serious learning environment that I had desired throughout high school.
I supplemented my scholarship funding during my undergraduate studies by working multiple jobs and this taught me a lot about prioritizing my time and really keeping my nose to the grindstone. One of those jobs was working as a research assistant in the biology department of my university where I gathered behavioral data and anesthetized golden silk and black widow spiders to harvest their silk for biochemical analysis. Assisting with others’ research projects really whet my appetite to explore my own scientific questions and gave me the beginning of the skills that I will need to pursue a career in research.
One of my favorite undergraduate experiences was getting to develop and implement my own research project for my Senior Honors thesis as a part of the curriculum required for graduation from the University of Akron’s Honors College. I worked for several years at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo in the education department where I helped take care of the animals used in public shows. This allowed me the unique chance to test out some of what I had been learning about animal behavior. One animal in particular needed extra attention; an alligator who was developing aggression issues. In order to focus his attention and enable safe handling, I elected to train him to do several behaviors which included touching his nose to a target and voluntarily entering a crate. I developed a training protocol and documented the alligator’s progress which I then reported upon in a paper titled; “The Use of Operant Conditioning and Positive Reinforcement in Training an American Alligator (Alligator mississippiensis).” My presentation of this paper received second place at the 2007 Biology Undergraduate Research Conference at Akron University.
The sometimes wandering path that has brought me to this point in my life has allowed me to become a very well rounded individual. This seems to me to be a crucial quality in this field as, like in evolution, adaptability is often the key to success. I am especially grateful for the problem solving skills that I have been able to foster and develop. This was never clearer to me than two summers ago when I worked as the intern in charge of the Golden Lion Tamarin Free Range Program at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo. Originally developed to be part of a captive breeding release program for the conservation of the species, it has now become an opportunity not only to enrich the lives of a family of small orange monkeys who are let loose in the park every summer but also to educate and inspire the millions of visitors who are astonished to see an animal at the zoo who is allowed to roam free. This however places an interesting responsibility on the shoulders of the tamarins’ caretakers as they are forced to deal with situations in an environment in which many uncontrollable variables exist. I had to think on my feet many times to ensure the safety of both the monkeys and the visitors when one or the other refused to respect their mutual distances. For example, using any materials on hand to cordon off a safe path when it suddenly appeared that the tamarins were going to cross the walkway on the ground instead of in the trees, or being ready to lure a mischievous pair of adolescent monkeys away from a parked golf cart that they decided might make a good jungle gym. Even just figuring out how to get accurate weights from six monkeys on a weekly basis to insure their health without being able to directly feed or make contact with them was quite a challenge.
Though conservation and environmental science can often be frustrating and disheartening fields, I feel passionate that they are essential and rewarding pursuits. I view understanding and improving the health of our environment as an issue of social justice since it is tied directly to the quality of life for all people. While I hope to form the core of my career around science and research, I will also strive to be knowledgeable about policy and active in education in order to make the largest beneficial impact possible. I plan on pursuing my doctorate upon completion of my masters degree.
I would be an asset to the University of Maryland because I have a great drive and determination. I plan to accomplish a lot in my research career and have already come a long way in building the experiences and networking to help me in doing so. I greatly look forward to the opportunity to be a part of a serious learning environment and intend to take full advantage of the resources available to me. I hope that the University of Maryland will offer me a competitive and stimulating intellectual environment and provide me the opportunity to work with exceptional peers, faculty, and scientists as well as open doors to resources that will further my research and my career. I would be proud to continue my academic career at Maryland and feel that I would make an excellent addition to the school’s highly regarded field of environmental sciences.
In this day and age, no one in the environmental science field can afford to rest on their laurels. We all need to get out and take on the challenges facing the planet. I have a passion to change things for the better and the vision to get things done. I believe that Maryland is the institution that can help me build the set of tools that I will need to start solving problems.