Alumni profile: Where are you now?

Roxanne Ardeshiri

Summer Research Program '10

Mentor: Benjamin Baiser

Project: Community Ecology of "Sarracenia pupurea" Pitcher Plants

College and major: UC Berkeley, Class of 2012 Molecular Environmental Biology B.S.

• What you miss most about the Summer Research program: The forest itself, Tim's meals, assisting Aaron Ellison with his field work (trekking through Vermont bogs to find the elusive pitcher plant!), the cows, honing my canoeing skills and all of the social connections I made there.
• What you miss least about the program: The tedious lab work.
• What about the program has stuck with you: Everything I have mentioned above in question 2 and more! It's like I have a vault of endless memories! I suppose that the tangible things that have stuck with me would include my harvard forest "gear" which I wear from time to time...There is also a publication for my HF project somewhere out there in the sea of scientific findings! I absolutely loved all of the seminars that were held in the museum for us. Most of all the speakers were truly inspiring, for the intentions they set forth for their research were to highlight the anthropogenic impacts to the health of forest ecosystems. Studies including an emphasis on the urban environment spoke to me the most. I really hope to see more research like this coming from Harvard Forest! I believe in you all! :)
• Have you stayed in touch with other Summer students? I have re-connected with at least a few students from my program in 2010. I'm sure that number would be a lot higher if I wasn't so inconveniently located geographically, relative to the other students!
• Did your Summer Research experience support or change your school/career plans? CHANGE!!! And although I am not continuing with post-graduate studies in the biological/ecological sciences, I have absolutely NO REGRETS for having dedicated as much of my time and energy to the scientific community as I have already done. In fact, I feel inexplicably blessed and privileged to have attended the Harvard Forest REU program. It helped me better understand who I really am, what my intentions are, and where I need to be heading next. And I had a BLAST while doing so! (minus the tedious lab work)
• What are you up to now? I am now, a recent graduate of UCB, and my life is currently undergoing a RADICAL change of course. I'm getting heavily immersed in a variety of activities including energy healing arts (reiki, acupressure, acupuncture), psychic abilities (empathy, clairvoyance, clairaudience), social justice activism through the Occupy Movement, cooperative living, and urban agriculture. I guess one could say that I am embodying the change I want to see in the world.