Undergraduate Summer Interns 2022

Jingyang Yu

Jingyang Yu is a senior student from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He is interning with Dr. Xin Zhong Liang DAWN team, mainly focusing on feature engineering for machine language application in crops. A fun fact about me is I'm a 10-year-ManCity-fans but wearing AC Milan's jersey in the photo!

Linda Herbrand

Linda is a third year undergraduate student in the Environmental Sciences program at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. Her interests lie in community engagement concerning environmental justice, and how climate and temperature impact low-income communities and communities of color. During the DAWN internship she interned with Dr. Melissa Kenney, and led the interview process of Network Analysis. She was also a part of the Market Analysis and NOAA CPC/NIDIS Usability research. The DAWN internship helped her gain professional development and team coordination skills.

Marissa Frick

Marissa is a Junior at the University of Maryland, studying Environmental Science and Technology with a concentration in Soil and Watershed Science. Her personal research interests include soil degradation, agroecology, and environmental education. Marissa is working on the DAWN project under the supervision of Dr. Michael Gerst and Michael Maddox at the Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center (ESSIC). She is researching and modeling how environmental factors affect corn dry down in the Midwest, and she hopes to gain experience in machine learning modeling and how to carry out scientific research effectively. Her favorite way to spend free time is camping or backpacking, and she is very excited for her first long-term backpacking trip this summer!

Jack Keane

Jack Keane is a junior economics major at University of Maryland, College Park working as a CONSERVE intern in the Maryland Institute of Applied Environmental Health's (MIAEH) Water Quality, Outreach, and Wellness Lab (WOW) under the advising of Dr. Rachel Goldstein. His research interests include environmental economics and the intersection between environmental sustainability and human well-being. In the lab, he is working on 3 particular projects involving testing the quality of water from homes, private wells, and farms in the Baltimore area, respectively, for waterborne bacteria. From the CONSERVE/DAWN program, he hopes to gain a better understanding of the research process, working in a laboratory environment, and to broaden his perspective on the problems that researchers try to address in the world. He plans to go to graduate school and hopes that this internship will help give insight into that experience as well.

Alex Choiniere

Alex Choiniere (he/him) is a rising junior at the University of Maryland majoring in Music Performance and minoring in Sustainability Studies. His personal research interests include biodiversity conservation and climate adaptation. His supervisor for this internship is Dr. Melissa Kenney , where he is researching DAWN's network and market outreach. He is also participating in climate adaptation research through this internship program as well. He hopes to gain valuable research and networking skills this summer.

Afriye Linton

Afriye Linton is an undergraduate student who graduated with her Associate's Degree in Environmental Science and Policy from Montgomery College and is in the process of transferring to a 4-year institution. She is passionate about equitable resource distribution to vulnerable communities, especially in the face of a changing climate. This summer she is working with Dr. Melissa Kenney at the Environmental Decision Support Science Lab, housed at the University of Minnesota's Institute on the Environment. Her main projects involve helping with communications and networking tasks for their extension team.

Molly Seligman

Molly Seligman is a rising junior at the University of Minnesota- Twin Cities. She is majoring in Environmental Science, Policy, and Management with a track in Policy, Planning, Law, and society with minors in Corporate Environmental Management and Sustainability Studies. Her personal research interests are learning how to make infrastructural change to the way our society attempts to mitigate climate change. She is inspired to play a role in environmental advocacy work to help make the impacts of climate change more equitable. She is also interested in learning about public policy and do a lot of diversity work; She hopes to help make the different communities she reside in more equitable for all. This summer she will be working on the DAWN project with Dr. Melissa Kenney by participating in quite a few projects. For one of the main project (DAWN Market Analysis) she is the undergraduate lead, specifically for the interviewing process. She hopes to learn how to be a better researcher and interviewer, make connections with people that work in the field that she would aspire to be a part of one day, and also strengthen her professional writing skills.

Jazmin Gastaldi

Jazmin Gastaldi is from Argentina and is a student of Agronomic Engineering career at the University of Buenos Aires. She is very interested in the technical aspects of agricultural activities and in precision agriculture.

Her mentors are Dr. Laila Puntel and Laura Thompson, from the University of Lincoln, Nebraska. During her internship, she is assisting with data collection for existing on farm research studies. Her goals for participating in the CONSERVE/DAWN Summer Intern Program are to gain new work experience and increase knowledge on how and what tools to acquire to grow food efficiently and sustainably.

Cristina Czochanski

Cristina Czochanski is a senior at the University of Maryland where she studies Environmental Science and Policy with a concentration in Marine and Coastal Management and a minor in Meteorology. She is very interested in ecological systems such as soil, ocean, and human communities, and their interaction with climate change. Currently, she is a DAWN intern working in the Hydrology and Remote Sensing Lab with Dr. Xuesong Zhang and Dr. Audra Hinson. She is researching climate change risks to the ecosystem services of freshwater wetlands and riparian zones in agricultural areas. She is hoping to gain valuable research experience and learn more about ways to mitigate the impacts of climate change through research.