Very few people understand what a scientist does day in and day out.
We just plunk it into this liquid nitrogen.
A lot of students think they want to be a scientist,
or want to be in the science professions.
So by participating in this short program, they get to see a little bit of that.
So the SHERC program at Stonehill is an opportunity for students to get into a research lab,
get practical experience in chemistry or biology or environmental sciences,
and really build on the skills they've learned in the classroom.
It's something unusual because a lot of colleges either have limited access or no access to research.
At Stonehill, a good portion of our researchers take on summer students,
and we do this every single summer.
I have a 15-year relationship with Woods Hole Xenographic Institution.
It is one of the world's best private research foundations.
By bringing my students down to Woods Hole to do our research,
they get to interact with some of the best minds in the world
on different topics of marine chemistry and marine biology and marine geology.
Our hypothesis is that the organic inputs from the oysters
are stimulating the process of denitrification in the sediments.
So we're studying the microbes that are in the water, in the sediments,
and then the sinking organic material.
.517.
At the beginning of the summer, we were working very closely with Professor Rogers,
but he did his best to teach us all we needed to know and then let us work independently.
He trusts us with being able to carry out tasks
because he knows that in the real world,
you're not going to have a mentor looking over everything you do,
and he really let us grow into the scientists that we are.
We don't really expect to see high rates of denitrification or anamoxin these
because there haven't been any oysters there.
Stonehill is special because we keep our class sizes really small,
which means that the students and the professors get to interact directly and often.
Both my research students this summer were kids that I had in my general chemistry classes,
and I was able to pick them out from the crowd and say,
hey, I would really like you to come work with me if you're interested in doing this sort of work.
Dan is an engineer.
Part of what I do in my lab is engineering, building instrumentation.
And so I chose Dan to come and help me not only do the fieldwork for the soyster study,
but also build the instruments that we need to analyze the samples.
So Dan is in part building a mass spectrometer that we'll use in my lab for years to come.
One of the most valuable things about being able to do research this summer
has been just being able to figure out whether or not research is the right fit for me.
You don't really find that at most undergraduate institutions,
and that's why this summer has been such a good experience.
Working on a project like this is really providing me with a knowledge base
that I can hopefully take wherever I go.
You're actually out there implementing solutions.
So that's been really cool to see and very valuable experience.
