This past year has been an eventful one for me as we transition back to somewhat normal life. As a junior, I moved off campus into a large house with 8 other roommates! There definitely was an adjustment period, but I will say that my cooking skills have improved dramatically. While I sometimes miss the simplicity of dorm life, it is nice to be truly independent and I have embraced the responsibility of living on my own.

Academically, I decided to use this fall semester to focus on fulfilling my requirements for UVM’s college of arts and sciences. This meant I would be taking courses outside of the typical biology and chemistry classes I have grown accustomed to. I figured this would be a good way to transition from COVID college back to normal school. My high grades in psychology, philosophy of science and field zoology prove that I made the right decision.

With a less demanding course load, I was able to secure a research position studying avian malaria recently discovered in New England's common loon populations. In 2016, a loon was found dead from an apparent malaria infection. This was the first documented case of avian malaria in loons. Numerous other bird species have experienced significant population declines due to avian malaria, making this discovery very concerning. My lab instructor, Ellen Martinson, has been researching the spread of avian malaria using blood samples from loons across the northern United States. I focused on the mosquito species that transmit the disease, determining what malaria parasite lineages were present in New England’s mosquitoes through PCR and gel electrophoresis. In the process, I discovered a lineage of avian malaria parasites that had yet to be seen in New England mosquitoes. I also took part in a loon necropsy, where my lab members and I performed post-mortem inspections on multiple loon specimens to determine how they died. In the loon I necropsied, we observed significant swelling in the heart and liver. This led us to the conclusion that the juvenile loon had in fact died from a malaria infection.