Amanda Newsom
Hamline University
St. Paul, MN
Dear National Science Foundation,
I want to thank you for your generous financial support of my summer internship at the Smithsonian Institution’s Natural History Museum Research Training Program (RTP). This experience has been invaluable both to my professional development and my personal growth. The contacts I have made this summer have inspired my sense of wonder and stimulated new questions in lectures, collections tours, and in open discourse with me about their particular fields of interest. Of all the benefits that the RTP offers, I would have to say that the latter has been the most influential.
My project this summer was to gather data on cetacean specimens collected for the Smithsonian since 1900 under the supervision of Dr. James Mead of the Marine Mammals Division. Specifically, I was able to utilize the vast databases, accessions files, and libraries of the Smithsonian to determine how circumstances of specimen death have changed over the course of the 20th century. I coupled this exploration with a survey of popular literature on cetaceans in Scientific American and National Geographic Magazine published since 1900 in an attempt to gauge public sentiment and interest in these animals.
I expected my project to be challenging, and was excited by the opportunity to learn about the ethics and logistics of specimen collection. Never did I expect to learn so much natural history, economics, politics, and technological history in just ten weeks. Moreover, I am delighted to say that I participated in an inter-disciplinary project of such magnitude. We have only begun to understand the wealth of diversity that the oceans hold. Similarly, we have only begun to understand how we, as human beings as well as researchers, relate to this frontier. On a more personal note, I entered this program with much initial anxiety at the idea of wading through such vast information. I was soon to discover, however, that not only did the RTP supply me the means and support to accomplish the project successfully, but that I would develop the skills and confidence to take on any project of scientific interest and see it to completion.
I can only hope that other students will have this opportunity to explore all the wonder that natural history has to offer, and to develop as professionals in such a stimulating environment. Again, I wish to offer my heartfelt thanks to your organization for having faith in the RTP program, and in me. It has been a pleasure.
Sincerely,
Amanda Newsom
Research Training Program, 2002