Undergraduate Summer Interns 2025

Boluwatife Adetutu

Boluwatife Adetutu is a recent graduate with a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Management and Toxicology from the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta in Nigeria. She’s passionate about everything related to environmental sustainability, and she plans to pursue a master's degree in this field. This summer, she’s working under Dr. Stephanie Lansing (Bioenergy and Biotechnology Laboratory, University of Maryland). Her role involves analyzing and synthesizing lab data into fact sheets, short videos, and other easy-to-understand resources about animal waste technologies, such as composting, biochar, and anaerobic digestion. Through the CONSERVE/DAWN/GFA Summer Internship Program, she hopes to gain practical, real-world experience on how waste can be converted into valuable resources while protecting natural ecosystems. Her long-term goal is to become a leading advocate for environmental sustainability, helping communities implement effective environmental solutions.

Sachin Parikh

Sachin Parikh is a rising sophomore Public Health Science major at the University of Maryland, College Park. He is working in the WOW lab under Dr. Rachel Rosenberg Goldstein, researching the environmental health impacts and presence of antimicrobial-resistant waterborne pathogens in sanitary sewage overflows in under-resourced Baltimore neighborhoods. His research interests lie in public health microbiology, and he hopes to learn microbiological laboratory techniques to help him contribute meaningfully to the project and prepare him for future research in the field.

Alyssa Weisenberg

Alyssa Weisenberg is a rising sophomore at the University of Maryland School of Public Health, pursuing a Bachelor of Science degree in public health science. Her academic interests include ecology, epidemiology, the social determinants of health and the One Health model of public health. She is currently working with Dr. Allen P. Davis in Civil and Environmental Engineering as a Global FEWtures Alliance (GFA) Summer Intern, where she will be contributing to three projects this summer. One of the projects evaluates the toxicity level of epoxy resins as repair materials for stormwater pipes. The second project assesses the extent that compost addition to soils can be used in filtering heavy metals from stormwater. The third evaluates the reduction of stormwater runoff temperatures through bioretention media. From the GFA Summer Intern Program, Alyssa aims to gain research experience while exploring the connection between human and environmental health.

Vincent A. Ferrera

Vincent A. Ferrera is a graduate of the University of Maryland who obtained his master’s degree in Atmospheric and Oceanic Science. His research interests include the physics, dynamics, trends, and socioeconomic impacts involving extreme weather and climate, the advancement of numerical weather prediction, and the application of machine learning in atmospheric science. For this internship, he will support the development of machine learning models that will be tasked to evaluate seasonal-to-subseasonal extreme precipitation impacts on crop yields. His work will be supervised by Dr. Xin-Zhong Liang, the leader of the Earth System Model Research and Development (EaSM) Lab associated with the DAWN project hosted at the Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center (ESSIC). His internship goals are to build off his graduate scholarly paper research on extreme precipitation impacts on Corn Belt crops, improve his technical skills in programming and machine learning, and establish lasting connections with the DAWN team.

Changwen Ding

Changwen Ding is a sophomore at the University of Maryland studying Public Health Science. She is interested in environmental health, toxicology, and microbiology. She is working with Dr. Malayil and Dr. Murray on the Maryland Safe Drinking WATER project this summer. She hopes to gain lab skills, experience with all sides of academia, and a better understanding of the topics that fall under "environmental health" as a whole.

Marleigh Nicholas

Marleigh Nicholas is a senior at the University of Arizona studying hydrology and Atmospheric sciences. I am interested in the effect that development and use of land have on water supplies. I am working at UNL with Dr. Laila Puntel and Laura Thompson doing on-farm research centered on nitrogen fertilizer management in corn. My goal for this internship is to learn more about how other areas of the country manage their water supply and some of the new technologies being used to advance farming practices.

Rachel Hillman

Rachel Hillman is a rising senior at the University of Maryland, College Park. She is pursuing a degree in Environmental Science and Technology, with a concentration in Soil & Watershed Science. This summer, she is working in Dr. Rachel Goldstein’s Water Quality, Outreach, and Wellness Lab, where she is helping with the Rainwater Harvesting in Urban Agriculture Project, among others. Through CONSERVE, she is excited to experience environmental microbiology from a public health perspective, specifically by helping farmers utilize collected rainwater safely. In her free time, you can find Rachel crocheting, spending time with friends, and enjoying the outdoors!

Melina Petenatti Muñoz

Melina Petenatti Muñoz, is a student from the National University of Río Cuarto, in Córdoba province, Argentina. My major is Agronomic Engineering, I'm in my last year of study, senior. My personal research interests are based on optimizing resources, like in this moment, water use. Dr. Christopher Neale is my supervisor here at the Daugherty Water for Food Institute, University of Nebraska. In my internship I’m helping to test the spatial evapotranspiration modeling interface (SETMI). I hope to gain experience about farming in Nebraska, and get training on the use of modeling for my future professional career.

Miranda Mathews

Miranda Mathews is a recent graduate with a degree in Public Health Science from the School of Public Health at the University of Maryland. I am interested in exploring how the effects of climate change impact different cultures and socioeconomic groups, with the hope to make the impacts of climate change more equitable in the future. I am currently involved in the CONSERVE summer internship with Dr. Leena Malayil and Dr. Rianna Murray, focusing specifically on The Safe Drinking Water Project. Through working in a laboratory environment, I hope to gain a better understanding of different laboratory techniques, especially how it applies to ecological systems such as the ocean, air, water, and living organisms.

Felipe Gomes

Felipe Gomes is from Brazil and is a senior student of Agronomic Engineering at the University of São Paulo (ESALQ – USP). His interests are focused on precision agriculture in corn, soybean and wheat. His mentors are Dr. Laila Puntel and Dr. Guillermo Balboa from the University of Nebraska. Felipe joined the NRATE project which aims to improve nitrogen management in corn. His activities mainly involved the collection and processing of research data. His goal is to improve his technical, practical, and personal knowledge for more sustainable food production, and he believes he can achieve this through his participation in the CONSERVE/DAWN project.

Aide Gaitan

Aide Gaitan liked to be called Hazel is from Dallas Texas and is currently going to Kalamazoo College. I am a rising senior; my major is Environmental Studies with a math minor. My personal research interest is how maize agriculture production is affected by climate change. I am currently working for DAWN with Dr. Nupur Joshi and Dr. Elizabeth Abraham. My research project is a literature review on user stories and think-aloud and how they impact agriculture. What I hope to gain from participating in the DAWN summer internship program is having to understand how the research field works within the agriculture industry and how climate change impacts agriculture today.

Guenevere Baierle

Guenevere Baierle, originally from Chicago, and is currently go to Kalamazoo College as a senior this upcoming year. My major is Biology with a concentration in Environmental Science and a minor in Studio Art. I hold an interest in researching animal behavior and how animals interact with their environment. For this internship, I'm working with Dr. Nupur Joshi at Kalamazoo College. Our research includes the methodology of user stories and think alouds within climate surveys. From this research, I hope to gain a better understanding of how climate change has not only affected the agriculture, but the overall well being of the environment, which goes in line with conservation research that I want to do post-grad. With the research I am doing, I hope to go further and develop better techniques for research, and to improve my writing and presentation skills which will help in future research.