School Days

Some of my earliest memories are of school. In fact, I've spent the majority of my life in school! My primary education took place at Concord Head Start, Lakeside and Sandy Hook Elementary Schools, then Elliott County Middle and High School. Immediately after finishing high school, I began undergraduate studies at Morehead State University, initially planning on a major in Computer Information Systems but eventually switching to Environmental Science with a minor in Regional Analysis and Public Policy. Upon graduating, I entered Dr. Tom Barnes' lab in the Forestry department at the University of Kentucky. I studied ways to remove invasive grasses in attempts to restore native Bluegrass savannah habitats in central Kentucky. I became really interested in invasive plant and animal ecology, and was lucky to find a spot in Dr. Lynne Rieske-Kinney's forest entomology lab in the Entomology department, also at UK. I studied forested watershed ecology in headwater streams with eastern hemlock growing in the riparian zone, compared to streams without hemlocks. I spent a lot of time hiking to field sites in eastern Kentucky, at Red River Gorge, Pine Mountain, and Robinson Forest, which was difficult, but looking back it was my favorite part of the experience. 

Almost immediately after finishing my PhD in 2012, I began teaching college classes with very little prior experience. I had part-time teaching gigs at Georgetown College, Morehead State University, and Transylvania University during 2012-2013, eventually landing in my current position, Biology Lab Coordinator and Adjunct Professor at Transylvania.

What this means is that I spent from about 1986 to 2012 consistently going to school, and 2012 - 2021 teaching classes, working on research projects with students, colleagues, and friends. School has always been a huge part of my life. There is something comforting about the academic year schedule. The nervous excitement at the beginning of the fall term, the magic of winter break, the exhausting push through the latter parts of the spring semester, and the sprint that May term represents toward the finish line of summer. Each year represents variations on a theme - you know roughly what will happen but each year expresses itself in completely unique ways. Students bring new observations, new questions, new personalities that make teaching the same sets of courses interesting, I always come away from each course iteration having learned something new. 

It also means that there was always a goal for me to achieve, I knew where the goalposts were and what was required to reach them. "Finish high school." "Get a college degree." "Finish writing the thesis." "Finish and defend the dissertation." "Find a job." Perhaps that explains the anxious feeling I have sometimes, that there is something on the horizon I should be preparing for. For now, my goal is to plan a good hybrid experience for May Term Entomology class, and a summer Environmental Science class that focuses less on Western environmentalism with inclusion of more diverse voices and thought.