My 2016 Wallace-Carver Fellowship

          So for any of ya’ll wondering what I was up to this summer, here’s a little bit of too much information. Some of you probably remember when I went to India in 2014.I was sponsored through the World Food Prize for the Borlaug-Ruan Internship. This is again another AWESOME program through them called the Wallace-Carver Fellowship. I was at a USDA Research Lab where I studied real problems that farmers face every day. I am a little biased, but I got placed at the best lab I could have asked for. It’s called the Aquatic Animal Health Research Unit and it’s in Auburn, Alabama. I worked under Dr. Ben LaFrentz, who is actually a University of Idaho alumni (go vandals!). I mainly worked with a bacteria called Flavobacterium columnaris. Despite having the worst smell possible, I actually liked working with it. I learned how it grew, what caused it, and how it reacted to different factors. Basically I know it too well. This bacteria can affect a lot of fish, but I mostly looked at catfish. It erodes the fins and causes hemorrhaging and the fish’s eyes start to bulge. It’s crazy cool.

This is what the fish houses looked like. They were so clean.

My first day here, I helped another scientist bleed baby catfish to test hematocrit level that were affected by diet.



I learned how to use an autoclave, which kills almost all bacteria using pressure and heat.



The main thing I did this summer was type the bacteria into different categories. This was a process that included growing the bacteria, extracting DNA, running Polymerase Chain Reactions (PCR’s) to make many copies of the DNA, and then putting the liquid from the PCR into a gel that we ran an electric current through. Essentially, after all these steps, we could put the gel under a special camera and it would tell us what category the bacteria fell under.

This is what it looks like when you run the electric current through the gel.



This is what the gel looks like inside the machine. (its on the tray)



            It sounds super complicated, but it’s just a lot of big words. I’ve never taken a Biology class and I barely passed Chemistry if that tells you anything.

            I got to work with some amazing people though. My first day, I was pretty nervous and the very first person I met was Ms. Pat and she has the thickest Southern accent you can imagine. She was so kind to me and she made sure everyone knew I was coming. And the most mind blowing thing: everyone said my name right.

Ben was incredibly patient with me even when I asked the stupidest questions. One day, we dissected a fish that had Columnaris disease and we were identifying all the organs. He picked up one and asked what it was and you will never believe what I said. Lungs. I said lungs. And the second I said it I knew how dumb it was. And he just gave me a look and said, “Think about it, this is a fish.” So I had my fair share of brain lapses this summer.

Ben also shares a lab with an incredible scientist, Dr. Julio Garcia, who always cracked jokes and talked to me about some aquaculture programs that they have in the high schools. He killed several cockroaches, so Julio is basically my hero.  

The Lead Research Scientist at this lab was Dr. Ben Beck. He decided that my nickname was Forster of Nature. So needless to say, he was a jokester who tells some pretty good stories. Also on my first day of work, he wanted to give me a tour around Auburn (AKA show me where the football stadium was and tell me about the jumbotron they just got installed). Anyways, Ben is near 7 feet tall. We called him Big Ben to distinguish between the two Bens. Well the lab has some government vehicles that are used for work purposes, so when Ben gave me a tour of the city, I couldn’t stop laughing because he had to squeeze into a Chevy Cruze (that car that looks like a PT Cruiser). His head hit the top of the car and he cringed every time we went over a speed bump. He told me all about how Auburn was a for sure bet for the National Championship this year.

These were just a few of the people I got to work with this summer, but I am so thankful for them. They made my summer so great and I could have never learned all this information without them. I never dreaded coming into work because I knew that I was going to be working with some great people who loved being there as much as I did.

One day of my fellowship, we got to travel to West Alabama to see an actual catfish farm. I met the farmer, Peter, who had originally done row cropping, but switched to catfish about 10 years ago. He talked to me about what I was doing with Ben and he told me a little bit about how the farm works with 117 acres of just ponds. One of the first things he said to me was: If you could do anything you wanted with your life, what would you do? The question caught me off guard but I told him that I want to feed people in developing countries. I think my answer surprised him because he responded with: What the hell are you in Alabama for? He was really awesome though, he told me a lot of the life lessons that he had learned and that I’m a young person and I can do anything in the world I want to do. It sounds really cheesy but I had so much fun talking to him, and he even gave me a cool hat, so win-win. After we spent some time looking at the conditions of the ponds, we all went out to lunch where I ATE CATFISH FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER. And surprisingly, I loved it. I even sometimes crave it, which is totally bizarre. (ps don’t try to fry catfish in your apartment, your roommate will be mad and it smells bad)

The ponds range in size from 1-5 acres.

This is the catfish when they feed.

I had so much fun this summer and I learned so much new knowledge that I couldn’t have gained in a classroom. The World Food Prize has really been such a blessing and who knew when I went to the Global Youth Institute three years ago that I would continue with them and go to India and study teens in agriculture and then go to Alabama and study catfish of all things. Thank you so much to Libby and Keegan and everyone at the World Food Prize who made this possible. I’m so grateful.

Oh yeah and shout out to my amazing mom who drove to Alabama with me and then flew back down just to drive my car back to Idaho. She’s kind of the best thing ever.

 

Much love,

Kirsten xoxo



Me and my cute mom when we got to Auburn.