Undergarduate Summer Interns 2021

Anji Cooper

Anji Cooper is a rising junior at University of Delaware. She is a UD World Scholar majoring in Environmental Science with a concentration in Marine Science, a Spanish Minor and a certificate in Eco-Entrepreneurship. Her research interests include climate change, environmental sustainability, endangered species, and marine biota. Anji is working with Dr. Leena Malayil and Dr. Amy Sapkota of University of Maryland to create an undergraduate global virtual classroom focused on international food, energy, water and health systems as well as political, social and economic factors relating to agricultural water. While participating in the DAWN program, Anji hopes to improve her analysis and networking skills, and also to gain a world view of water sustainability.

Seetal Ahluwalia

Seetal Ahluwalia is a rising sophomore at the University of Maryland, College Park where she majors in Hearing and Speech Sciences with a minor in Spanish. She is passionate about environmental activism, especially the intersection between public health, social justice, and the environment. As a DAWN Summer Intern working with Dr. Melissa Kenney, Seetal is assessing stakeholder needs through thorough document analysis and interviews. She is also working to spread DAWN's message by cultivating a social media presence for the organization and publishing written content on the blog. From the internship program, Seetal hopes to gain insight into the complexities and importance of sustainable decision making in agriculture.

Aly Magee

Aly Magee is a senior at University of Maryland, College Park, majoring in Environmental Science and Technology with a concentration in Natural Resource Management and a minor in Sustainability. She is interested in researching the effects of climate change, sustainable crop and water use, and alternative sources of renewable energy. Aly is working with Dr. Yun Yang and Dr. Christopher Neale for her DAWN summer internship, assisting with evapotranspiration models for irrigation scheduling. Through this internship, she is hoping to improve her data analysis skills, as well as expand her knowledge in computer programming/coding.

Emily Speiermn

Emily Speierman is a rising senior studying environmental and water resources engineering at the University of Maryland, College Park. This summer, she is working under the supervision of Dr. Rachel Goldstein in the Water Quality and Wellness Outreach (WOW) lab. With funding from the Chesapeake Bay Trust and a partnership with Baltimore City Public Works, the research team is analyzing irrigation water used by Baltimore City community gardeners and farmers for indicator bacteria and heavy metals. The results of the study will be transformed into outreach material that aims to educate and empower the gardeners and farmers. Outreach is key to linking the scientific community to the real world and implementing best practices. Moving forward, Emily seeks to further minimize the separation between the agricultural sector and science and help drive change that will benefit both farmers and the planet.

Jicell Butron

Jicell Butron is a senior at the University of Arizona, Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health majoring in Public Health with an emphasis on Environmental Health. Her personal research interests include water sustainability, access to water and sanitation and hygiene, and environmental justice. Jicell is currently working with Dr. Leena Malayil and Dr. Amy Sapkota for the CONSERVE program focusing on data analysis/visualization and manuscript writing. She hopes to gain insight on sustainable nontraditional water irrigation, further develop her data analysis skills with the use of R and learn how to write a successful manuscript.

Simon Winter

Simon Winter is a Junior at the University of Maryland: Baltimore County. He is majoring in Geography and Environmental Science, and minoring in Public Health Policy. He is interested in studying urban design that is healthier and more sustainable. This summer, Simon is working with Dr. Megan Leigh Matthews on computational models that predict plant growth in order to maximize crop yields and water efficiency. As a Dawn intern, Simon hopes to develop his programming skills and learn about participating in a research project.

Nancy Dong

Nancy Dong is a rising senior at Stony Brook University, double majoring in Applied Math & Statistics and Technological Systems Management. She is interested in studying and mitigating climate change via data analysis and programming/technology. Her project for the DAWN program is to work with Dr. Xin Zhong Liang, Dr. Drew Gower, and Dr. Chao Sun to build a model that can forecast corn yield based on a variety of climate parameters. She hopes that participating in this program will strengthen her knowledge of programming, data extraction, use of servers, working with big data, and machine learning.

Niya Khanjar

Niya Khanjar is a junior at the University of Maryland, College Park pursuing a degree in bioengineering with a minor in sustainability studies. Her interests include microbiological research with environmental health applications and sustainable systems engineering. Niya is working as a CONSERVE intern with Dr. Rachel Goldstein of the UMD Extension team on the Baltimore City Irrigation Water Quality Project, where she is investigating the presence of microbial pathogens in irrigation water samples from farms and community gardens to determine the safety of their sustainable irrigation water sources. During this internship, Niya hopes to gain perspective on the challenges of sustainable water sources for irrigation, and how to improve their safety. Additionally, she hopes to enhance her understanding of microbial pathogens that threaten water quality and their impacts on human and environmental health.

Megan Blumenauer

Megan Blumenauer is a rising junior at the University of Maryland, College Park majoring in Civil and Environmental Engineering in the Environmental and Water Resources track. She is interested in researching environmental impacts of climate change, including the water-food-energy nexus and disaster resilience. This summer, Megan is working with Dr. Xin Zhong Liang and Dr. Drew Gower to develop a machine learning model that uses various climate variables to predict soybean yield in the DAWN Summer Internship Program. While working with DAWN, she hopes to gain experience analyzing data, broaden her coding capabilities, and enhance her research and analysis skills in a real world setting.

Jennie Hernandez

Jennie M. Hernandez is a senior at Humboldt State University, majoring in Rangeland Resource Science. She is interested to learn more about (TEK) Tribal Ecological Knowledge and use that for rangeland grassland restoration with the use of fire ecology such as prescribed burns.This summer she will be working on the DAWN project with Dr. Melissa Kenney and the extension team in assisting on stakeholder scientific needs assessments. She hopes to gain better communication and research skills that can help her in potential research opportunities.

Trey Ansani

Trey Ansani is a senior at the University of Arizona, majoring in Sustainable Plant Systems. His current research interests include controlled environmental agriculture in greenhouses, and precision agriculture on farms. This summer he has traveled to Nebraska to work with Dr. Laila Puntel and Laura Thompson. He will be assisting them with the Precision Nitrogen Management Project at the University of Lincoln Nebraska. Through the Conserve and Dawn Internship Program he hopes to gain insights of how crops can be cultivated and fertilized with different rates of nitrogen to support their growth stages. He is also interested in how this effects the soil and water samples taken from the land at different locations that utilize several cultivation practices in large scale agriculture. Additionally, he is hoping to enhance his networking, and agricultural extension skills through the internship.

Arul Gnanasivam

Arul Gnanasivam is a junior at the University of Maryland, College Park majoring in Aerospace Engineering. Arul is interested in studying sustainable methods for aerospace travel and will be working with Dr. Xuesong Zhang on improving the DAWN system by analyzing nitrogen data. He hopes to gain research experience working with data and models, while also learning more about sustainability.