I’m Hope Dzik, a student part of the Freshwater@UW program for aquatic invasive species management. I applied in hopes of getting a deeper understanding of research and was extremely excited to participate in a REU with the opportunity to let me experience the process of field work. At my home university, Michigan State, I have not had the opportunity to do so but my experience at UW-Madison this summer has been great.
When I found out I was accepted, I was both anxious and excited to meet everyone else involved in the Freshwater@UW program. My experience with meeting other cohort members, grad students, professors, and many others involved in the REU has been one of the best parts of my summer. I have made so many professional connections and have met future environmental scientists from around the country. Our orientation events allowed us to become acquainted with Madison and each other, the best part being pulling invasive plants together and sitting exhausted in the shade after. Madison is also an amazing place to be in during the summer. I love biking around the city on my free bike, shoutout to the red bicycle project, and swimming in the lake.
Everyone involved in this program has shown support with research and have taken the time to get to know us, I have felt extremely taken care of. All of the professionals I have met, and the sense of community this program has brought, makes the stressful or confusing aspects of my research worth every mosquito bite or failed experiment.
My project objective is to refine a protocol for collection and analyzation of invasive Carp eDNA. Bighead and Silver carp can indirectly harm native fish populations and are great threats to Wisconsin’s freshwater, so being able to detect a population of either species in a body of water can allow monitoring the growth of their population. I am working with both Upham Woods learning center and the biotechnology center. My method development has been a frustrating but gratifying process. It has involved finding the best way to collect river samples from the Upham Woods campus, most efficient way to extract DNA, and refining techniques to analyze the DNA samples. The complete protocol will be used for teaching highschool groups, which is one of the reasons I selected this project. I want to be able to show that biological research isn’t intimidating, and is open to all types of people.
This REU has been an amazing opportunity, it has allowed me to learn extremely important skills like science communication and self advocacy. I have discovered how much I enjoy field biology and ecology, while applying course concepts. The water collection process is a great experience, I love being outside in the river. Grad school does not seem as intimidating anymore either. I arrived at this REU questioning my post undergraduate plans, and now I have started to plan my future in biological research. It has allowed me to narrow down my career goals and I hope to continue field research in the future.