One Piece of the Puzzle

The second week of our REU experience is already done, and it's exciting to see everyone's projects taking shape. In the past two weeks we have learned a lot about the watershed and the communities that thrive on it. After gaining this preliminary knowledge, we are ready to take on research projects that will hopefully give back to these communities. That said, the research we are working on will also be a process of learning and growing for us as we prepare for life after college and potentially graduate school.


This summer, I will be working on two projects with my research partner Monica, and our Mentor Dr. Zach Raff. Since we are conducting economic research, our goals may differ from teams that are studying wetlands or fuel cells, but I think they are all interconnected in the end. The LAKES project is about interdisciplinary research and therefore, we must work together to create many solutions to one problem. I see our research this summer as being one piece of the puzzle that can help to solve water pollution issues here in Menomonie and elsewhere.

Monica and I have divided our research this summer such that both of us will be working on both projects, but one of us will take the lead on one. Monica will be taking the lead on a field experiment project where we will survey boat users at several local lakes to determine how the lake is valued as if it were a good in the market. Even though I am not the primary person on this research project I am still very excited to help survey lake users and see how the study turns out, since it is a very unique approach to economic research. For my project, we will be looking at water pollution policy by studying the NR151, which is a set of policy in Wisconsin that is aimed at curtailing water pollution, mostly from agricultural runoff. We will be assessing water quality data from before and after the implementation of this law to determine whether this policy has had any impact (positive or negative) on water quality in Wisconsin.

Research has become something that I have become very interested in and passionate about since I have been studying social science at Stout. I hope to continue on to graduate school and have the ability to work on projects much like LAKES. Through these projects, I think I will learn a lot about how to create effective research studies that can help individuals and communities, work in an interdisciplinary manner, and help to implement policies that will combat issues such as pollution.