  | Students who win Coastal Fellowships get hands-on research experience with URI faculty, graduate students, and staff. | ||||||||||||||||
Success Starts with ExperienceBy John Pantalone '71 When he completed his under-graduate studies this summer, Matthew Dowling '00 put himself a step or two ahead of most of his colleagues. Just listen to his mentor, Professor Jon Boothroyd, Rhode Island state geologist, who supervised Dowling's work for two years in URI's Coastal Fellows Program: "Matt has been my field assistant [on two research projects]. He could do a similar project on his own in graduate school. His experience in the Coastal Fellows Program is simply not attainable in a standard classroom." Dowling, a geology major, was one of 38 Coastal Fellows who spent 30 hours a week last summer collaborating on hands-on research projects with URI faculty, graduate students, and staff. The students, who receive academic credit and a stipend, worked on projects ranging from soil microbiology, horseshoe crab ecology, and songbird physiology to tracing shoreline change in Rhode Island. Dowling and the other Coastal Fellows joined an elite corps of URI undergraduates totaling more than 220 since 1996, which is when the program was started as part of the University's Partnership for the Coastal Environment. These students, who compete for the fellowships, are models for an experiential learning movement that URI President Robert Carothers hopes will continue to gain momentum. "The Coastal Fellowship has been the most effective manifestation yet of what we envisioned as the New Culture for Learning," Carothers remarked. "Its students are active and collaborative learners, highly motivated, and capable of serious reflection on the larger meaning of their work, both for themselves and for America. The Coastal Fellows Program is simply what I dreamed of 10 years ago." Carothers' rousing endorsement is echoed by the students. "I didn't realize the opportunity at first," said Dowling, who spent the summer studying water movement in two watershed areas in southwestern Rhode Island and recording the data for the U.S. Geological Survey. "As the fellowship progressed, I began to realize how valuable it was. It gave me a chance to work with graduate students, professors, and professionals in the field, and I learned a lot about geology and about working in a research team." "This aspect of the Coastal Fellows Program is perhaps the most important," said Professor Arthur Gold, who serves on the Coastal Partnership's steering committee and has been a mentor for Coastal Fellows since the first year. Students get to see what it's like to be a graduate student and to work as a full-fledged team member with faculty and with professionals from such agencies and organizations as the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management, the Providence Gas Co., U.S. Fish and Wildlife, and URI's own Coastal Resources Center. "The fellows become immersed in a culture, and they work with peers in the field who are making advances," said Gold. "They're working in a situation where quality has to be the highest. There's no such thing as a 'B' in this class." Gold's Coastal Fellow this past summer, senior Thomas Liddy (below),an environmental science & management major, will remain in the program through the fall semester (as will all the fellows) working 10 hours per week. The eight-month experience allows the students to give extended attention to their projects. Says Plant Science Professor Richard Casagrande, "You can't have students work on projects such as ours [trying to find natural enemies for plants that kill monarch butterfly larvae] during the regular school year because there isn't enough time, and it isn't the right season. The extended time gives students a better overview of the research process." Jennifer Dacey (left), a senior wildlife biology major who spent four years in the Coast Guard before starting her college career, has worked since last June with Casagrande on his efforts to thwart the black swallow-wort, a plant that attracts monarchs to lay eggs that hatch and then die on the plant. "Spending the extended time allows you to go through all the procedures," she said. "A three-month class simply wouldn't do it. I decided to try for the Coastal Fellowship because I thought it would look good on my résumé, but once I got into it I realized how rewarding it would be." According to coordinator Deborah Grossman-Garber, the Coastal Fellows Program has motivated undergraduates to continue their studies. Ninety percent of the former fellows are either in graduate school or working in their field. "I really didn't think about graduate school until I started the fellowship," said Tom Liddy. "I was a little overwhelmed at first [working with Art Gold's team on studies of riparian wetlands as filters for harmful nitrates], but you learn as you go. I was nervous about making mistakes, but it made me work harder because I was part of the team. Before this I really didn't know what I wanted to do, but I can see myself going to grad school to prepare for this kind of work." Graduate school is definitely in Josefa Dougal's plans (above right). This senior fisheries major, whose family moved to Providence from Guatemala, wants to pursue a career as a fisheries biologist. Her experience working with Marta Gomez-Chiarri, assistant professor of fisheries, animal and veterinary sciences, in studies of diseases plaguing oysters has given her the hands-on experience she needed. "I'm more confident as a student now that I can do this," Dougal said. "When I started I didn't know how to do any of the tasks we do in the lab now. You can't read about this work. You have to do it." Gomez-Chiarri said Dougal's Coastal Fellowship illustrates the importance of providing a variety of learning experiences. "Josefa had some difficulty in her classes early on, but she is strong now and has shown great aptitude in the lab," the mentor remarked. "Students learn differently and have different strengths; they need various learning oppor-tunities." Some Coastal Fellows become so valuable to their teams that they stay on as part of the research team in part-time, paid positions. Others have gone on to graduate school and continued working with the same research teams. "No matter what else they do, this program provides an additional pathway for undergraduates," said Gold. Among its other attributes, the program has changed how professors interact with undergraduates. "She's running this program," said Casagrande proudly of Jennifer Dacey. "She's in here every day checking to see how the monarchs are doing. She's treating this research project as a professional would." u A lecturer in the URI Journalism Department, John Pantalone '71 is the former editor of Newport This Week and Newport Life Magazine, the former regional editor of Art New England, and the former arts and living editor at The South County Independent. |
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