By Nick Chang, 24C
The Ecological Society of America’s Strategies for Ecological Education, Diversity, and Sustainability Program (ESA-SEEDS) is a program designed to improve the representation of students from underserved communities in the field of ecology. This program offers a variety of opportunities for students, including field trips, chapter grants, fellowships, and funding support to attend the annual Ecological Society of America conference.
The Emory Ecological Society (EES), a pre-existing student organization at Emory, petitioned for affiliation with ESA-SEEDS in 2022. “We took a look at our programs and thought that the opportunities offered through ESA would be a good chance to help get more students involved in ecology,” wrote EES founder Nick Chang. EES is now recognized as Emory’s chapter of the SEEDS program, and students involved with the chapter receive priority to participate in National Field Trips.
The SEEDS National Field Trips are designed to offer research opportunities for students who haven’t had the chance to take a field course or participate in a research internship. These trips, along with the SEEDS program as a whole, are a part of an ESA push to increase training opportunities for diverse students in ecology, with the ultimate goal of improving diversity in the field. These trips are fully funded field experiences with no costs to the students.
So far, three EES members have participated in one of these field trips. Alonzo Hernández 25C and Titi Nguyen 25C traveled to the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest in New Hampshire in the fall of 2022. As a part of the trip, the conducted elevational vegetation transects to see how topography influences the composition of forest communities.
“I had never been to New Hampshire nor a trip with ESA before, and it proved to be an incredible experience,” wrote Hernández. “Every attendee was friendly, and I still keep in touch with some of them today, and all of the researchers, professors, and guest speakers made a lasting impression on me, and really made me think about what I want to do after college.”
A year later, Maya Risin 25C participated in a different field trip co-hosed by SEEDS and the ESA’s Black Ecologists and Environmental Justice Sections. Hosted at Rice University in Houston, this trip provided participants with a foundational knowledge of urban ecology, as well as opportunities to explore how the structure and function of cities impacts the communities which inhabit them. “While exploring the city, my group researched the impact of socioeconomic status on canopy coverage, soil temperature, and soil moisture in recreational areas like neighborhood parks. This trip was in collaboration with the Black Ecologists section of ESA so seeing that representation and learning so much about environmental justice in a major city made this an amazing experience!”
SEEDS Field Trips also complement other projects that EES has brought to Emory. In 2023, the Emory Ecological Society received funding from SEEDS to run a field trip to the Okefenokee Swamp. This trip, designed as a leadership retreat for students identified as up-and-coming chapter members, built community among participants and also led to the creation of a series of informational posts about the ecology and history of the swamp. EES has also partnered with the SEEDS chapter at Agnes Scott College to win another grant from ESA which will fund a Diversity in Ecology Field Trip for Emory and Agnes Scott students to the Georgia Coast in March 2024.
The SEEDS program also invests in campus leadership through its annual leadership meeting, through which student leaders in SEEDS chapters and elsewhere in the SEEDS program are brought together to discuss topics in ecology, as well as to develop cross-chapter collaborations and help define the future of the program. Emory has sent representatives to the past two SEEDS leadership meetings, Iris Chen 23C and Nick Chang 24C.
One final opportunity that SEEDS makes available is funding support to travel to the ESA’s annual meeting. Through one of these travel awards, Iris Chen 23C presented a poster on her senior research at the 2023 ESA Annual Conference in Portland, Oregon. “It was a great opportunity to gain experience with presenting and to receive feedback on my independent research project,” wrote Chen. “It was also really exciting to be able to attend presentations and posters on different ecological research and connect to other scholars with similar research interests.”
However, the SEEDS program’s commitment to building community and supporting students through their formative years in the ecological discipline don’t stop at buying plane tickets, says Chen. “ESA is the largest ecological conference in the U.S. so there’s a ton of different sorts of people presenting and attending! But even further, the SEEDS Undergraduate Travel Award turns a rather overwhelming conference (4000+ attendees!) in an unfamiliar city into an friendly and welcoming experience especially those who identify with groups that are traditionally not represented in ecological sectors. As part of the SEEDS cohort, we had a lovely group of other undergraduate, first time ESA attendees to attend the conference and explore Portland with, ticketed events with food and compelling conversations about diversity in ecology, and a conference mentor.”
Students interested in becoming involved with Emory’s SEEDS Chapter or the national SEEDS program are encouraged to become involved with the Emory Ecological Society, as well as to contact Dr. Carolyn Keogh, who is Emory’s SEEDS Chapter Advisor.
Department of Environmental Sciences 