1000 Miles to a New Home

The LAKES-REU project has allowed me to move away from my hometown of Frederick, MD for the summer. Frederick is a big town with many different areas of life. My house is surrounded by farmland, but is also just a skip away from the part of town that has just about anything you could ever want. My college career takes place a little more north at Delaware Valley University, which is in Doylestown, PA not Delaware, and is a lot like my hometown. Its a small agricultural and science driven school that is allowing me to gain my Bachelor's in Environmental Science, and has introduced me to the LAKES-REU project.

After being accepted, I decided to take the harder route to Menomonie, by taking my car on a 1000 mile journey, over the span of two days. After a very long drive, I arrived in a new world that oddly looked a lot like home except without Mountains. The University here is a lot bigger then my school and the town is a lot smaller then my own, but yet it still has a homey feel to it. The town is really nice, with a very welcoming atmosphere from people who are so excited to meet us. This small town feel just gives me an extra drive to want to help clean up Lake Menomin, especially since I get to use some very cool equipment. My school has the same equipment, but its mostly hand me downs that we purchased from other institutions to save money. This budget management has sadly lead me to have a lack in knowledge of the equipment, but I thankfully will gain that knowledge here.

LAKES-REU seems like a great program that has given me a once in a life-time experience, and I cant wait to get started on. Hopefully these eight weeks will not fly by to fast because I cant wait to soak in the town, the people, and actually make a difference in cleaning up Lake Menomin.