Can we take maybe a minute and
introduce ourselves? Sure. Yeah,
I guess I hate to start
early, but yeah, no,
that's absolutely fine. I can
reintroduce myself. I'm done
with the, with the, uh, um,
environmental studies and chemistry
departments at Emory & Henry.
Thank you. Um,
I'm Amanda Bishop and I'm an admissions
counselor here at Emory & Henry
college. Um, Cody, if you,
or if any other students jump on, um,
if you have any questions throughout the
session, please feel free and type, uh,
type them in the chat bar below. Um,
we'll definitely get to them at the
end and I've also typed up a few sample
questions as well. Um,
but yeah, I guess, uh, Dr.
Hainsworth feel free and take it away.
Should we go ahead and get started?
It's three o'clock so, all right, well,
I want to thank everybody for
joining me here on this glorious,
Southwest Virginia afternoon. It
really is beautiful outside. And, um,
and I want to start by acknowledging
that we are in trying times right now,
um, to say the least, we have a
global pandemic against a backdrop of,
of ongoing racial unrest in this country,
and it means that things
are uncertain, but, um,
one thing is absolutely certain and
that is the education is the path to
opportunity.
And so I I'm here this afternoon to
talk a little bit about opportunities at
Emory & Henry College, uh,
for people who are interested
in environmental studies
and for being outside.
So I put together a little
PowerPoint presentation
and I would like to, um,
share that,
let me share my screen here it is.
And I want to,
Can everybody see that? Is that all right.
So, um, this is just going to be a
very brief introduction with, um,
pictures of fun things, uh,
to the environmental studies program
at Emory & Henry College. And again,
I'm Dr.
Laura Hainsworth and I teach in both
environmental studies and in the chemistry
department. And so, um,
our environmental studies
program has two tracks, uh,
to the major.
One of those tracks is a science
track and it emphasizes, um,
some general science courses. Again,
just more science based courses, uh,
courses like general chemistry,
but general biology are part
of those ecology courses. Um,
we have a course called
environmental monitoring, um,
and it is that track is designed more
to prepare students who want to go on to
careers,
maybe in wildlife biology
or into graduate study in,
um, an environmental field.
We also have a policy track and
that track is a little bit more, um,
emphasized, uh, in courses like,
um,
economics and public policy and community
service and courses that will prepare
students to work maybe with local
environmental organizations,
um,
with municipalities who are
doing environmental planning
and that sort of thing.
So, um, the, the two tracks
have quite a bit of overlap,
but then there are, are other
courses, uh, in between.
And we meet together again for the
environmental studies senior center.
Okay. One of the things that we really
emphasize at Emory & Henry and the
environmental studies
program is experience,
and we through the coursework that our
students do and through the research
experiences that our students do
and extracurricular experiences,
we really try to emphasize experience
and getting outdoors as much as possible.
And so, um, uh,
if it's things like tagging black
bears and studying black bears on,
uh, in Mount, on the Mount Rogers area to,
uh, carry out water quality
monitoring projects, um,
to doing soil studies Mmm.
All kinds of activities like that,
we really love when we can get students
out into the field and we can get
ourselves out into the field. Wow.
And part of that is that we'd like
to work with local environmental
professionals.
So this is a photo I'll talk a little
bit later about the Bartlett Crowe field
station. I'm sitting at the Bartlett
Crowe field station right now.
It's a beautiful resource that
we have here. Um, this is,
uh, uh, Bryan Ledford, who works with
the Virginia Department of Forestry.
He's one of only two foresters
here in the Southwest region.
And he comes out every other year to
assist with us doing a controlled burn.
And so we manage some of the land here
at the field station by burning sections
every two years. And then we
look at ecological succession.
So our students have the opportunity
to work directly with Brian with, uh,
uh, um, career forrester.
And that kind of experience
is really invaluable. Um,
we also have students that work with, um,
professionals from department of game
and inland fisheries and with other
environmental organizations.
And so I think it's a real
highlight of our program that,
that we have these connections
with the community,
and we can open doors for students
and getting students, getting our,
to know some of the people working
in environmental fields in our area.
Um, here's another example of
that. This is, uh, a group, our,
this is our wildlife monitoring course,
and these are students working
with professionals from, uh,
department of game and inland fisheries.
And they're doing a stream shocking,
uh, activity this time.
So they've got, uh,
electrodes that shot the
streams and the fish float up.
And they're doing a stream survey,
uh, in this, in this photo.
So these are Emory &
Henry students, again,
working with local
environmental professionals.
Another thing that we offer
are research opportunities.
And this is where I think as a small, uh,
college Emory & Henry really has
tremendous opportunity for undergraduates.
And that is, um,
it's that we can tailor research
opportunities for just about any student
interest that comes
along. We have, um, uh,
students who are
interested in, in biology.
We have students who are
interested in more earth science.
We can work with our faculty,
the flexible enough that we can work
together and we can put together research
opportunities, um,
for students in a tremendous
variety of, of different fields.
And so, uh,
that is part of what Emory &
Henry calls a handcrafted education.
You know, we will work with you and
with work with your interests to try to,
um, put together, uh, um,
projects and opportunities
that match your passion.
And here's, uh, just a little bit
about the Bartlett Crowe field station.
This is something, you know,
I guess you can think about the things
I've said and many environmental studies
programs offer those sorts of things.
They offer experiential
learning and they offer, um,
student research opportunities.
One thing that we have that most other
undergraduate institutions don't have is
this Bartlett Crowe field station.
And the field station is a property that
was donated to the college about six
years ago, seven years ago.
And it is 75 acres.
We have half of it is wooded.
About half of it is a open field.
And we have a half mile of riverfront
on the middle fork, Holston river.
Um, we have two ponds, we
have Springs, we have caves,
and it is a tremendous
resource for any kind of,
uh, research or environmental opportunity
that you might be interested in.
Uh, the, the field station has a
residence here that we use as a home base.
The photo I have there,
there's me sitting almost in
the same place right here,
um, talking with another
professor and a group of students.
And we were planning some research
projects at that time. And so, so,
um, uh,
the Bartlett Crowe field station
really is a tremendous resource.
And if any of you are interested in,
have a opportunity to
come visit the college,
I would love to take you for a walk
around the grounds and give you a tour of
the field station. And we can
talk a little bit about, um,
some of the opportunities out here.
We have a new research project that we're
launching, uh, recently, and that is,
um, a study on blue burrowing crayfish.
We have a population of burrowing
crayfish in the wetland about 16 acres of
wetland. And, um,
it turns out that these crayfish may be
undescribed mean it doesn't mean that
we're discovering the crayfish. People
have known that they're here all along,
but they have not been
scientifically described.
And so they may be a
new species of crayfish.
So that's something that we have
going on here. That's exciting.
It's just one example of, of all of the
opportunities that we have to offer.
So this is part of the college campus.
It's only 15 minutes away
from the main campus.
I bring my classes and my
labs out to the field station,
and we do a lot of work out here. Um,
this is where we do the controlled burns,
and it really is a tremendous resource.
And it's a unique resource among
undergraduate institutions.
Um, we also have the Emory &
Henry College organic garden,
and we have a lot of students who come
here and who are interested in food
sciences, food production,
organic food production,
and we are launching a new program, a new,
a new minor in organic food
production and organic food studies.
And so if you're interested in gardening,
if you're interested
in food production, um,
there are opportunities out here at
the Bartlett Crowe field station, uh,
as well or at the Emory &
Henry organic garden as well.
And then for the last little bit here,
I want to talk about connecting
education to the world of work, um,
because we are in uncertain times and it
is critical that the education that we
provide at Emory & Henry College be
valuable and be practical and be a step
toward a career in the
environmental field.
So that is a critical, um, goal for,
for us and in the environmental
studies program. Um,
we work very hard to
connect our students again,
to environmental
professionals in the region,
and to prepare our students for
careers that they may, um, uh,
encounter. And so here's one of
our former students Will McBride,
and he's now working for a drilling
company and he's doing environmental
consulting. I've got several
of these. We have Karen Gilmer,
who's a former student,
and she is the chief
environmental specialist at
one of the local power plants
in Lynchburg, Virginia. And, um,
has been recognized in that position. Uh,
we have Blake Logan,
who's working now for department of
game and inland fisheries, and he,
this is a photo of his, um, internship.
One of the ways that we connect
education to the world of work is through
meaningful internships. And so Blake
spent his summer working with gaming,
inland fisheries in a
local lake doing, uh,
fish shocking and fish surveys. And
they were able to find this giant,
I think it's a Flathead catfish or
something like that. But, um, um,
he's now working with that organization.
He's preparing to go back to graduates
And Amanda Silvera, again,
she's working with an
environmental consulting firm
and she's learned the skills
that she is using on the job, um,
while she was here at Emory & Henry,
one of the big steps forward
that we've taken in that is that,
um, uh, this last year we,
we were funded by the department of
environmental quality in a citizen's
monitoring grant.
And so the department of environmental
quality gave us funds to purchase
equipment so that we can, um,
I can work with students and we can do
water quality monitoring using the exact
same system,
the exact same monitoring
equipment that DEQ uses itself.
And so the students, um,
we have the opportunity to train our
students to learn on the exact same,
uh, method, the exact
same system that DEQ uses.
And so students coming out of this
experience will be ready to step into a
position with department of environmental
quality. Um, and at the same time,
the data that we are generating through
this grant is directly usable by the
department of environmental
quality. So we are going to be,
um, uh,
you're going to be providing DEQ with
level three certified water quality data,
which is really a wonderful thing.
It's data that they can directly use to
preserve the water quality in our local
rivers and streams. So, um,
that's kind of an exciting
partnership that we've got, um,
that is just ramping up right now.
Um,
you might be interested with people
sometimes are interested in study abroad.
And I just wanted to mention that the
environmental studies program has, uh,
has hosted many study abroad
trips. This is one that, um,
I took along with my colleague Ed Davis
and we went to Belize and we spent a
week out at a, uh,
biological research station.
This was a service learning
project that we undertook there,
where we were helping, um, they
were reattaching their dining hall.
And so we were helping with that
project, um, with this beliefs class,
we spend a week in the mountains in
the Mayan mountains, in the rainforest,
and then a week snorkeling
on the, on the, um, uh,
islands in the barrier reef off of the
coast of Belize. And so it's really,
it's an amazing trip and it's,
it's an amazing opportunity to perhaps
maybe stretch your yourself a little bit.
And then finally we just, um, we'd
love you to join us. Uh, we've got,
uh, terrific students, very,
very passionate students here.
We've got terrific faculty at
my colleague. Ed Davis is, um,
one of the most amazing professors
I've ever known in my life. Um,
we also work with, uh, colleagues
in the biology department, uh,
in the, um,
sociology department and in
the geography department.
And we've got the environmental studies
program sort of branches out and draws
from lots of different areas. We're very,
um, we can be very flexible that way.
Um, but the common theme is that
everybody that's working in the program is
passionate about the environment, um,
and passionate about what we can do
to make this world a better place.
And so that's all I have. The last one is,
is I'm happy to answer any questions
that you might have about, uh,
our program. Um,
I don't believe any have
come in so far, but, um,
students please feel free to type any
questions that you have into the chat bar.
Um, I do have a few prepared in
case nobody asks any though. Um,
so I'll just dive into
a couple of those. Okay.
Let me, let me go back.
You do it from the current slide.
We'll keep going down here.
Just went off the end,
I guess. There we go.
All right. Um,
what would you say to someone who is
undecided about what they want to study in
college,
but they're maybe leaning towards the
sciences or environmental studies?
Well, the, we have a really
terrific intro course,
the intro to environmental
studies course. And, um,
if you think you might
be interested in, uh,
in a career in the environmental field
that intro to environmental studies
course is a great place
to start. Um, we also,
the environmental studies program works
very closely with like the biology
department, um, and also sociology
and geology department. And so,
um, for most students when
they come to Emory & Henry,
um,
if you really aren't sure what you want
to do the first year has tremendous
opportunity to sort of put your little
feelers out and try different things.
And so, um,
there are a lot of different ways that
you can interact with the environmental
studies program. You don't have
to launch in with both feet. Um,
there's quite a bit of
flexibility. And in fact,
in your beginning of your college
career, there's a ton of flexibility and,
um, you can try some things out and if
it's not what you thought it might be,
or you want to go in a different
direction, um, uh, you know,
there's always room, uh,
to find your passion.
The other thing is that we have
very active environmental, um,
student organization, uh,
the climate coalition.
And so one way to get involved in
the environmental studies program,
if you're not ready to jump in and take
classes is to get involved with that
student group as well. And it's, again,
it's a big group of very
passionate students and, um,
and it's a nice way to get connected
and sort of find your tribe.
Great. Thank you. Um,
do many students in the environmental
studies department have a minor?
And if so, what are some common example?
That's a great question.
And the answer is yes,
many students do end up with a minor.
One of the very common minors
is biology. And in fact,
biology and environmental studies
work very closely together.
We have students that have a major in
biology and a minor in environmental
studies or the other way around. Um,
sometimes it can be in
chemistry because I'm a chemist.
That is the one that
makes me really excited.
We have a student that graduated with, um,
may have been a double major in
chemistry and environmental studies, um,
who was working, uh, as, um,
an ecologist with DuPont now.
And he's doing aquatic toxicology,
meaning he's working with
the DuPont corporation,
giant multinational corporation
and helping that corporation,
um, monitor the toxicology
of its product. And so,
and we certainly don't want
to have consumer products
that are toxic in aquatic
environments. And so they hire
environmental specialists and, um,
uh, let's see, another very
common minor is geography.
A lot of students will major
in environmental studies
and minor in geography.
That's another common one and
then lots of other ones, music,
sometimes religion sometimes. So again,
so many opportunities.
And I think that's really the brilliant
thing about a small institution.
Yeah, I definitely agree. Um, what
is your favorite class to teach?
Oh, that's a great question too. Um,
I teach a course called environmental
monitoring and environmental monitoring is
EMV S 200. So it's for students,
you've taken the first class, the
intro to environmental studies class.
It's the next class that you
take. And in that course,
we learn about the chemistry and the, um,
the science of the environment.
And we also learn about the steps that
you need to take to effectively monitor
environmental change.
So we start out with aquatic chemistry
and we do water quality monitoring,
and we, um, uh, visit rivers,
local rivers and streams
and students are, uh,
they choose a water quality monitoring
site and they go back and visit that site
over and over throughout the
semester. Um, then we talk about, um,
uh, not just water chemistry,
but also physical monitoring.
And so there are some
activities that we do.
It's something called a racial stability
index where we actually get in and walk
across the stream and measure the
texture, the size of the cobbles in those,
in the stream bed. Um,
we do aquatic macro invertebrate studies
where we use the little organisms,
the tiny little, um, NIMS
and larva may fly larva,
caddisfly, larva, and we capture
those. We count them, we meet, um,
organize them and we can determine the
water quality by the organisms that live
there. Uh,
then we start off with system
air atmospheric monitoring,
and we do, uh, the Emory & Henry weather
stations. We pay attention to those,
take those apart and
redeploy them. So, um,
the thing I love about this class is that
it's a lab class and every single lab
is an outdoor lab. I'm a
chemist. So part of my,
a lot of my work is indoors in
a chemistry lab. And I always,
I always kind of laugh and
I make my colleagues in
chemistry jealous when I say,
well, we're going out to
the field station today. Um,
cause we're going to do some forestry
techniques or something like that. And so,
um, I love that class
because I love the outdoors.
That's why I'm I in the position
that I'm in and I'm in that class,
I get a chance to be
outdoors every single week,
every week we spend
our lab outdoors. Yeah.
That's really great. Um,
sort of to kind of jump off of that
and to tie everything together.
What is one of your favorite things
about Emory & Henry College?
Oh, I have so many
favorite things. I've been,
I've been a professor here
for 22 years now. And,
um,
my favorite thing about
Emory & Henry College is,
um, is the professors that we have,
my colleagues are absolutely brilliant
and absolutely passionate and absolutely
student centered.
And I think that student centeredness
is the very crux of what makes Emory
Henry an amazing place. And, um, you know,
I've spent time at big institutions.
I was a grad student at the
university of Maryland college park,
giant institution,
what 42,000 students or
something like that. Um,
the classes that I was working with,
their general chemistry classes of 300
students in a class professor cannot get
to know 300 students. You just can't.
And so I'm in at Emory and Henry college,
my largest class,
I think I taught a weather and
climate class with 30 students,
and that was a big class. Most
of my classes have 10 students,
maybe 12, maybe 15.
And so if I have 12 or 15
students in a class, um,
we can really dig into, um,
the interests that those
students have, and we can, um,
take the time to really
personalize that education. And so,
um,
that student centeredness
and the incredible stellar
quality of the colleagues
that I have here at Emory and Henry,
those are the things that I think I
love the most about this place. Well,
thank you very much. I
certainly agree. Yeah. Uh,
again, uh, thank you all so
much for joining us today. Um,
if any of the students
have any questions, um,
that you think of at a later time, please
feel free to reach out to admissions.
Um, I'm sure you can reach out
to dr. Haynesworth as well. Um,
we would be more than happy to answer
those questions for you and help you out
any way that we can. Um, and I
think that just about wraps it up.
Absolutely. Well, thank you so much.
And, and again, if you get a chance,
I don't know what the visitation
situation is right now. Um, um,
but if you would like to visit
and we can make that happen,
visiting the Bartlett profield station
is a wonderful way to see this amazing
resource and I'm happy to hike
the trails with you. Well,
thank you all so much. Um, and I hope
everyone stays safe and has a lovely day.
Thank you. You too. Thank you.
[inaudible].
