Back in April, 109 donors (and some generous matching grants) helped us raise $32,240 dollars during the UW-Madison’s annual “Day of the Badger” fundraising campaign. Every dollar went to our Student Support Fund and gave a group of amazing undergraduates summer fellowships. We wanted to share what your support meant to our students. Here’s what UW-Madison senior, Kayla Bain had to say. Stay tuned for recaps from more students!
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My name is Kayla Bain. I am originally from a small town in central Wisconsin called Marshfield. I am going into my senior year of college at UW-Madison pursuing a degree in environmental science.
I was hired on this summer to assist with the aquatic invasive species (AIS) team. We are working on a lot of projects. One of them is an exclusion experiment investigating if the recent decline in zebra mussel population densities is due to some fish in lake Mendota learning to eat them. We have set up a number of “cages” on the lake bed of Lake Mendota – some prevent any fish from swimming in, others allow smaller fish in and the rest allow free passage – that way we can see if zebra mussel populations within the cages change as more fish are able to get to them. This requires once a week scuba monitoring, where I keep lookout for the scuba divers from the boat to make sure they are safe when they are under the water.
Another project is a study that looks at how other species of zooplankton have responded to the invasive spiny water flea. The spiny water fleas are predators that eat other zooplankton such as Daphnia. For this project, we go out and collect zooplankton from each section of the water column and ID every zooplankton in each sample to determine their densities at different depths and times of day. We are doing two total runs and each run consists of one sampling period at noon and another one at midnight.
I’ve also assisted in the long-standing Mendota Microbial Observatory (MeMO) project that consists of a huge dataset of lake conditions and microbial information over the last 20+ years. We go out to Mendota’s deep hole and sample twice a week for this project.
Overall, this has been one of the coolest experiences of my life. I’ve learned so much in the few short months I’ve been here and have been inspired by all the hard working and passionate people I’ve met along the way. Every day is a new adventure just as exciting as the last. My problem-solving skills are constantly put to the test and I’ve certainly become a better researcher because of it.
Being out and doing sample collection in a boat brings a certain challenge because we lose the convenience of having an entire building of resources at our fingertips. We’re forced to be good planners and inevitably, when something doesn’t go according to plan we have to come together as a team and utilize the resources we have on hand. Every day brings a new challenge but, without fail, when I come out the other side my life has been enriched in some form or another.
This job has been such a wonderful guide post for shaping my career goals. I’ve known for a long time that I love the outdoors and want to play a part in protecting it. However, the available avenues in the environmental field are never-ending which, at times, can get to be overwhelming. Luckily, I was afforded this amazing opportunity and it helped solidify for me that I want to pursue a career in limnology or some closely related field.
My first day on the job was unlike anything I had ever experienced and it was the moment I knew this was going to be the coolest job ever. I walked in and was immediately swept away to go help be the boat lookout for scuba diving. We ran through some trainings to make sure everything ran smoothly out on the water and just like that I was off to my very first scuba experience. The atypical nature of a “first day” excided me! If my first day on the job was spent on the water scuba diving at different research sites, I was excited to see what awaited in the coming days! Let me tell you, it hasn’t disappointed a single day since.
To all the Day of the Badger sponsors, a simple thank you cannot express my gratitude for the generosity from each and every donor. Because of all of you, I now know what I want to spend the rest of my life doing and have been given an invaluable stepping stone to my future goals. I will never forget this summer which was made possible through all of you. Thank you from the bottom of my heart!