Chemistry interns explore career choices while helping the environment this summer at EOU
By Laura Hancock
Media and Publications Writer
lhancock@eou.edu
La Grande, Oregon – Amanda Barber and Jessica Herrig’s idea of a summer job isn’t flipping burgers. These two teenagers would rather wade along the bottom of a stream bed, knee-deep in mud.
Photo/Laura Hancock/University Advancement
IN THE LAB: Jessica Herrig, left, and Amanda
Barber use an ion selective electrode to test the
nitrate and pH levels in a water sample.
They traded the usual high school summer activity of sleeping in until noon to wake early, grab some grubby shoes and head out to spend the day tramping through fields around the Grande Ronde Valley.
Barber, 18, and Herrig, 16, found their jobs this summer were anything but ordinary. They spent eight weeks conducting vital research to help the environment as interns under Dr. Anna Cavinato, chemistry professor at Eastern Oregon University.
Barber, an incoming senior at La Grande High School, and Herrig, who will be a junior at Union High, found out about two different internship opportunities through their schools. Barber applied for Project SEED, which is a program of the American Chemical Society that provides opportunities for minority students to explore careers in science.
Herrig applied for and received the ASE apprenticeship, (Apprenticeships in Science and Engineering). ASE is organized through Portland State University and Oregon Health & Science University’s Saturday Academy.
As a mentor with the ASE program, Cavinato has been bringing high school students to work in the lab at EOU for the past three years. Project SEED is a new program that Cavinato wrote a grant for this summer. Each internship program pays wages for the student’s eight-week period of employment.
Barber and Herrig monitored the water quality at End Creek, an irrigation ditch that once was a thriving habitat where steelhead came to spawn. The stream runs from the base of Mount Emily, past Hunter Road and out into the Grande Ronde Valley. It was straightened and confined in the 1930s to accommodate crop production.
Submitted photo
VALUABLE RESEARCH: From left, Amanda Barber,
Professor Anna Cavinato, and Jessica Herrig attend
an ASE symposium at Portland State University.
They learned how to test for and document nitrate and phosphate levels, dissolved oxygen, pH and water temperature. They checked for metals using atomic absorption spectroscopy and were introduced to some advanced techniques such as gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, used to detect volatile organic compounds like gasoline and diesel – all to determine the health of the stream.
“This is a great project for high school students because they get to learn not only chemistry and lab techniques, but also develop a better understanding of important local environmental issues,” Cavinato said.
The data Barber and Herrig collected will help the Grande Ronde Model Watershed Program determine whether or not End Creek is fit for future restoration. Cavinato first became involved in the project when Jeff Oveson, executive director of the GRMW, came to the chemistry department seeking an ongoing partnership with the University.
Cavinato jumped at the chance to incorporate hands-on research into her college courses, taking classes out into the field to conduct tests and gain practical experience. The result was a collaborative research partnership that benefits both students and the watershed program.
“The GRMW is excited about this partnership with EOU, not only for the documentation of water quality and its change through an implemented project, but to provide a learning opportunity for students,” Oveson said.
Barber and Herrig were able to continue the research Cavinato’s college students began. They set up three test sites located at the top, middle and lower portions of End Creek. Test bottles were filled and toted back to the lab in the Badgley Science Center for periodic testing and analysis.
In the beginning, the girls admitted that a few mishaps were unavoidable. They discovered that the handy plastic bottles used to carry samples were actually very breakable. “We do not have site one – it broke,” appeared in their log-books on more than one occasion, Herrig said.
The interns learned the importance of recording absolutely everything, from what type of vegetation was growing around the test sites, to what the weather was like the day before. Weather can affect the total suspended solids in the water.
“It’s a lot of repetition,” Herrig said. “The first day, nothing made any sense at all, but once we ran the tests a few times and got the hands-on experience, now it’s second nature!”
A symposium at Portland State University on August 20 gave Barber and Herrig a chance to showcase their work along with 140 other interns from Oregon and Washington who participated in the ASE program this summer.
Ultimately, doing something useful to benefit the environment made Cavinato’s interns feel good – knowing that their research will be useful in the future. Their study found End Creek to be a healthy candidate for restoration.
Although the two are now adept at using spectrophotometers and ion selective electrodes, Barber and Herrig said they probably will not pursue careers in chemistry.
“This has helped me appreciate chemistry more, but now I’m thinking more about going into political science,” Barber said. Herrig wants to study equine veterinary medicine.
Ultimately, the summer brought two new friends together who probably would never have met, let alone conduct valuable research together in a university science lab. Their birthdays even fall in the same month, just two years and one day apart.
“The benefits of summer internships are not limited to what they young people learn about their specific projects,” Cavinato said. “This is an opportunity for them to explore potential career paths, start thinking of themselves as future college students, and eventually, professionals. If these students go on to college, whether at EOU or somewhere else, we (mentors) will have made a major impact on their lives.”
Contact Information for Admissions
Eastern Oregon University
University Advancement
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Ackerman Hall, Room 209
La Grande, OR 97850
Phone: 541-962-3740
Fax: 541-962-3680
Email: advancement@eou.edu