在圣的一天. 爱德华:19岁的斯特拉·坎宁安

The July heat is already oppressive by 7 a.m.,当 斯特拉·坎宁安，21岁 arrives at a site on the banks of Waller Creek in downtown Austin. As rush-hour traffic hums in the background, 她沿着水边走, using a handheld device to collect data about the air quality.

五分钟后, 坎宁安爬到街道上, 哪里的城市噪音更大, and repeats the walk in the other direction. She pauses to make sure the data has synched with an app on her smartphone, then heads several blocks north to her next site.

Cunningham’s morning walks are part of her eight-week summer internship with the Nature Conservancy, 透过 Institute for Interdisciplinary Science (i4) 在圣. 爱德华的. The institute was established by a five-year, $1.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation’s Improving 本科 STEM Education: Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI) Program. 

Urban ecologists in the Austin office of the Nature Conservancy are studying the effects of multiple efforts to reintegrate nature throughout the Waller Creek watershed. The creek winds through residential neighborhoods, 德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校, and an urban waterway that winds through downtown before joining Lady Bird Lake. Cunningham and her four teammates collect data about air quality, plants and wildlife along the creek to track and measure changes in this urban ecosystem over time.

每天早上7点到9点.m., Cunningham visits four sites along the creek to take air-quality measurements along the creek and on an adjacent roadway, 所以她的团队可以比较两者. She then meets up with her colleagues for the day’s field research, which includes bird counts and surveys of the vegetation and trees along the creek. The students also check wildlife cameras that capture images of animals using the creek — raccoons, 负鼠, 鸟——偶尔还有人.

During one survey, Cunningham’s team encountered someone living in a camp in the creek bed. “Those interactions opened my eyes to different ways people are using the creek, 还涉及到城市生活的各个方面,她说。. “当我还是St. 爱德华的, the social justice dimensions of homelessness are always on my mind.”

Cunningham got interested in fieldwork during a weeklong research experience the summer after her freshman year,当 she did vegetation surveys at a park in northwest Austin. 数学专业, she is considering a career in data science, which develops methods to analyze large datasets like those generated in environmental field research. 

Her team this summer includes environmental science majors from the University of Texas and high school students interning with the Austin Parks and Recreation Department. Cunningham says one of her biggest takeaways is learning how to work with colleagues from different backgrounds. “Being able to use their expertise and collaborate on a diverse team was a great opportunity — not just to learn about myself, but to learn how to work with other people,她说。.

摄影:Chelsea Purgahn