CONWAY, Ark.
(June 25, 2019) – In
his first year at Hendrix College, biology professor Dr. Adam Schneider has
facilitated summer research trips to a learning environment that made a
dramatic impact on his own education: the Galapagos Islands. Schneider, a
botanist, just returned from three weeks in the Galapagos, where he volunteered
in the Charles Darwin Research Station’s herbarium and shadowed three Hendrix
students as they began their projects. He has returned to the U.S., but the
students—Kaylen Holman ’22, Rosie Ronca ’20, and Yaraseth Elorza ’22—will stay
in the Galapagos until mid-August.
Holman
and Ronca are working with tortoise rehabilitation and breeding centers through
the Giant Tortoise Restoration Initiative with the Galapagos
Conservancy and Galapagos National Park. They will conduct field work for a
migration study on multiple islands in the Galapagos, some of them uninhabited
by humans. Elorza is working with the Galapagos Verde 2050 Project, implemented by the Charles
Darwin Research Station (CDRS) with support from the Galapagos National Park
Directorate to restore degraded ecosystems and develop sustainable agricultural
practices.
Holman
and Elorza, both rising sophomores, are in the first cohort of Hendrix
STEM Scholars; their summer research is funded through a $650,000 National
Science Foundation S-STEM grant awarded to the College. A Hendrix Odyssey Program
grant funds the trip for Ronca, a rising senior. Schneider’s travel was made
possible through Odyssey and faculty development funding.
As an
undergraduate at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire (UWEC), Schneider
participated in this same program, so he contacted the researcher he had worked
with at CDRS to explore possibilities for Hendrix students. Schneider was among
the first participants in the program through UWEC, and on this year’s trip met
the current cohort of UWEC students and faculty. Seeing the continued vibrancy
of the program that inspired him nearly a decade ago and knowing that he is
still realizing its benefits has fueled his hope to create a sustained program
that sends Hendrix students to the Galapagos every year.
Top photo: Rosie Ronca, Kaylen Holman, Yaraseth Elorza, and Dr. Adam
Schneider at Galapagos National Park.
Middle photo: Yaraseth Elorza (left) plants seedlings on Baltra Island, a
former World War II-era airbase.
Bottom photo: Rosie Ronca and Kaylen Holman sampling tortoise feces for
parasite cysts.
About
Hendrix College
A private liberal arts
college in Conway, Arkansas, Hendrix College consistently earns recognition as
one of the country’s leading liberal arts institutions, and is featured in Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That
Will Change the Way You Think About Colleges. Its academic quality and
rigor, innovation, and value have established Hendrix as a fixture in numerous
college guides, lists, and rankings. Founded in 1876, Hendrix has been
affiliated with the United Methodist Church since 1884. To learn more, visit www.hendrix.edu.
