Joing Our Mailing List

Lisa Arvidson

Lisa was born and raised in Fort Collins, Colorado. She attends Front Range Community College in Fort Collins, Colorado. After graduation, she plans on studying environmental communication or environmental economics at Colorado State University. Lisa has always had a love for the environment and nature, and would like to better it as much as possible. She loves hiking and spending a lot of time with her family.  Throughout the summer she will be looking at extreme daily maximum temperatures, around Colorado, in order to determine if there is a climate change signal.

Research Project: Trends in Observed Daily, Summertime Maximum Temperatures in Colorado. Mentor: Imtiaz Rangwala, CIRES

View a short 90 second Elevator Speech or the full 7 minute Presentation

Margaret Baker

Margaret grew up in San Antonio, TX and moved to Colorado four years ago, where she has graduated from Front Range Community College with an A.A.S. in Forestry, Wildlife and Natural Resources. She will continue on to Colorado State University in the fall to complete her Bachelors degree in Environmental Communication. When not working with the RECCS team, she enjoys cooking, hiking, rock climbing and playing with her two dogs. 

Research Project: Modeling the Effects of Acid Mine Drainage in the Snake River Watershed, Summit County, Colorado.  Mentors: Diane McKnight and Jordan Carroll, INSTAAR.

View the full 7 minute Presentation.

Savannah Bernal

Savannah was born and raised in Pueblo, Colorado. She currently goes to school in La Junta at Otero Junior College where she is a student athlete on the golf team. She will be receiving an associates of science in the spring of 2016. When not in school or playing golf, she works at the SpringSide Cheese Shop as a sales associate, which is located in Pueblo. In her spare time Savannah enjoys camping, fishing, drawing, hiking, and swimming. 

Research Project: The Effects of Nitrogen Deposition on Biological Soil Crust in the Alpine. Mentors: Nichole Barger and Carrie Havrilla, EBIO

View a short 90 second Elevator Speech or the full 7 minute Presentation

Marianne Blackburn

Marianne has been a student of Community College of Denver and will be transferring to the University of Colorado Denver in the fall to study biology. She grew up in North Carolina but has lived in Denver, Colorado for the last three years. She has recently started exploring more of Colorado and looks forward to many more hikes and wildlife sightings. 

Research Project: Changes in Surface Fuels and Regeneration following the Mountain Pine Beetle Epidemic in Ponderosa Pine Forests Along the Colorado Front Range. Mentor: Jenny Briggs, USGS

View a short 90 second Elevator Speech or the full 7 minute Presentation

Luca Collins

Luca was born in Oahu and has since traveled around the United States, living in various different climate regions such as the mountains, desert, and plains, before moving to Las Animas, Colorado in 2007. Luca graduated with an A.S. in May 2015 from Otero Junior College and plans to go to UCCS to pursue a Bachelor’s degree in Game Design and Development. Despite majoring in game design, Luca is interested in more than just computers. She loves nature, hiking, and environmental sciences. Her desire is to find ways to use programming and the visualization of the game world to better understand environmental processes. Luca aims to find ways to tie these interests into the research being done at NOAA on atmospheric rivers. 

Research Project: Multiple Model Investigation of Atmospheric Rivers and Sierra Barrier Jet Controlled Precipitation Processes. Mentors: Mimi Hughes and Michael Mueller, NOAA

View a short 90 second Elevator Speech or the full 7 minute Presentation

Joseph Gomora

Joseph (Joey) is studying at Front Range Community College Larimer Campus. Joey’s area of study is Geology and he will be applying to Colorado School of Mines and CU Boulder to transfer in fall of 2016. Joey grew up in Southern California, and lived in many different places, but Colorado is the best fit. With some of the most unique geology in the world right in his backyard, this seems to be a great place for someone who has been obsessed with rocks and minerals. The more he learns the faster his interest grows.

Research Project: How Is Stream Flow Generated between Storms: Signature Identification of the Distribution of Flow Sources in a Headwater Mountain Stream. Mentor: Michael Gooseff and Erika Smull, INSTAAR, CZO

View a short 90 second Elevator Speech or the full 7 minute Presentation

Moana Sato

Moana grew up in Hawaii where she swam around and danced hula until she finished her Early Childhood Education degree at Kauai Community College. Moana moved to Denver and began her studies at the Community College of Denver. After taking a few classes in biology and calculus for pre-nursing, Moana was eager to learn more in the STEM fields. She is excited for the new knowledge to be gained from the RECCS internship. 

Research Project: Influence of Hillslope Steepness on Sediment Size Distribution along Rivers Draining the Colorado Front Range.  Mentors: Greg Tucker and Charlie Shobe, CIRES

View a short 90 second Elevator Speech or the full 7 minute Presentation

Kevin Thirouin

Kevin was born and raised in Golden, Colorado, and has always been fascinated by the world around him.  Since he was small, he’s enjoyed exploring the Rocky Mountains on foot, and has spent many days and nights in the wilderness. Since attending Red Rocks Community College in Lakewood, Colorado, plant evolutionary biology and plant paleontology has become a major part of Kevin’s academic focus, and his curiosity continues to grow in that direction. Kevin plans to transfer from Red Rocks in the spring of 2016, in pursuit of a degree in plant biology. After gaining experience in field and lab research in plant science, his ultimate goal is to go into education at the university level. 

Research Project: The Influence of Soil Moisture Availability, Relative Humidity, and Tree Distance from Stream on Diurnal Fluctuations of Leaf Water Potential in Ponderosa Pine.  

Mentors: Holly Barnard and David Barnard, INSTAAR

View a short 90 second Elevator Speech or the full 7 minute Presentation

Caihong VanderBurgh

Caihong moved to the United States three and half years ago from China. She is currently living in Westminster, Colorado. This spring, she earned her Associate of Science degree from Front Range Community College Westminster. She will be attending Metro State University this fall and plans to major in biology, which she loves. Caihong loves to go hiking and biking with her dogs in the mountains.

Research Project: Quantifying the Variability in Microbial Numbers and Metabolic Activity through a Soil Profile. Mentors: Noah Fierer and Tess Brewer, CIRES

View a short 90 second Elevator Speech or the full 7 minute Presentation

Andrea Weber

Andrea was born and raised in Gilbert, Arizona. She spent many years enjoying hiking, camping, fishing, and catching snakes and insects. She was fortunate enough to move to beautiful Fort Collins, Colorado eight years ago, where she can enjoy these activities even more. Andrea is currently attending Front Range Community College in Fort Collins, where she is studying and working towards going to the University of Wyoming for Wildlife Biology. She plans to continue her hard work in the field and in the office, in hopes of one day becoming a Wildlife researcher. 

Research Project: Linking Hydrology, Weather, and Earth Flow Displacements along the Dakota Ridge in the CZO in Boulder, Colorado. Mentors: Bob Anderson and Eric Winchell, INSTAAR, CZO

View a short 90 second Elevator Speech or the full 7 minute Presentation