{"id":9337,"date":"2014-11-12T09:49:54","date_gmt":"2014-11-12T14:49:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/college.unc.edu\/?p=9337"},"modified":"2024-07-02T14:44:49","modified_gmt":"2024-07-02T14:44:49","slug":"a-lifelong-scientist-finds-her-calling-at-unc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/?p=9337","title":{"rendered":"A lifelong scientist finds her calling at UNC"},"content":{"rendered":"
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As part of the Chancellor\u2019s Science Scholars program, Anna Atencio spent her summer at the UNC Institute of Marince Sciences. Here, she smooths out a sediment core sample in the Rodriguez lab. Photo by Emily Woodward<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

W<\/span>hen she was in second grade, Anna Atencio\u2019s parents gave her a microscope. \u201cI don\u2019t think I ever put it down,\u201d she says. \u201cI always wanted to be a scientist\u2014right from the start. I had no idea that you could grow up to be something that didn\u2019t involve\u00a0science.\u201d<\/p>\n

Atencio is now a sophomore at\u00a0UNC<\/span>, majoring in geochemistry with a minor in marine science. She is also a member of the first class of\u00a0Chancellor\u2019s Science Scholars<\/a>, a new scholarship program that awards $10,000 per academic year to undergraduate scientists planning to pursue a masters or PhD in their chosen field. But Atencio almost didn\u2019t come to Carolina at\u00a0all.<\/p>\n

While attending the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, Atencio was certain she wanted to go to\u00a0NC<\/span>State and major in engineering. The daughter of an aerospace engineer, she was eager to follow in her father\u2019s footsteps. \u201cI was really influenced by him and his job, so I didn\u2019t really consider other options at that time,\u201d Atencio says. But she still applied to multiple schools, and a few months later a letter came from\u00a0UNC<\/span>, offering her a spot in the Chancellor\u2019s Science Scholars\u00a0Program.<\/p>\n

Atencio started thinking about possibilities outside of engineering. She talked to her parents about her options, and they encouraged her to accept the scholarship from\u00a0UNC<\/span>. If she didn\u2019t like the program or\u00a0UNC<\/span>, they said she could always transfer the following\u00a0year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, I tried it and found out exactly how much I love geology and marine science. I\u2019m sticking with it,\u201d Atencio says. \u201cI\u2019m so glad I came to\u00a0UNC<\/span>.\u201d<\/p>\n

The summer before they officially start at\u00a0UNC<\/span>, scholars in the program take classes on campus together\u2014it\u2019s an opportunity for them to transition into college life and bond with each other. \u201cI made a lot of friends,\u201d Atencio says. \u201cAnd now, whenever we see each other on campus we stop and talk about science. I love being a part of the Chancellor\u2019s Science Scholars because with them, I can nerd out and tell them about the coolest parts of my\u00a0research.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to making friends, Atencio and the other scholars worked together to get into the swing of research on campus. Atencio quickly found a home in Brent McKee\u2019s lab in the Department of Marine Sciences, where she\u2019s currently studying how oyster reefs and marshes are reacting to sea-level rise. She\u2019s collecting data on how fast marsh grasses are growing and how much carbon they\u00a0sequester.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the marsh doesn\u2019t grow fast enough to keep up with sea-level rise, then the grasses drown and all that carbon goes back into the ocean,\u201d Atencio says. That influx of carbon leads to warmer surface temperatures in the ocean and contributes to the greenhouse effect. When McKee asked Atencio if she\u2019d like to spend the summer studying at the Institute of Marine Sciences in Morehead City, Atencio said yes\u00a0immediately.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really enjoyed the fieldwork\u2014taking the boats out and collecting the cores,\u201d she says. \u201cI had been working with these cores for about a year prior to this summer, but I had never seen them collected, so I was excited to see how the process works.\u201d The cores Atencio refers to are long columns of mud that researchers extract from marshes to gain information about the health and age of the\u00a0marshes.<\/p>\n

Back in the lab at\u00a0IMS<\/span>, Atencio and others in the Tony Rodriguez lab divide the cores in half and photograph them. Half of the core is archived for future use, while the other half is cut into five-centimeter increments so the researchers can examine its history. The core samples are dried in an oven, and then the sediment is ready for grain-size analysis. \u201cI was already pretty comfortable with standard lab procedure,\u201d Atencio says. \u201cBut what I really gained this summer was figuring out what it\u2019s like to work an eight-to-five job. I had coworkers and had to be at specific places at specific times, versus the flexibility you have when you\u2019re a student in a\u00a0lab.\u201d<\/p>\n

The hands-on lab work and fieldwork (and spending the summer near the beach) were obvious perks of conducting research at\u00a0IMS<\/span>, but Atencio\u2019s favorite part was the community. \u201cI immediately felt very comfortable there. Everyone wanted to talk to me and know who I was,\u201d she says. \u201cI went out in the field on my second day, and I had no idea what I was doing. Someone handed me a cluster of shells, and I had to identify the oyster and I didn\u2019t know which one it was. I know what big oysters look like, but these were tiny. But the grad students pointed it out to me\u2014I had no idea that this tiny shell was an oyster\u00a0too!\u201d<\/p>\n

While Atencio is still two and a half years away from graduating, she is certain she wants to stay in research. \u201cI just want to continue to find new information,\u201d she says. \u201cI like researching things that will make a\u00a0difference.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Find out more about the Chancellor\u2019s Science Scholars program at\u00a0http:\/\/chancellorssciencescholars.web.unc.edu\/<\/a><\/div>\n

By\u00a0Mary Lide Parker\u00a0| Endeavors<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When she was in second grade, Anna Atencio\u2019s parents gave her a microscope. \u201cI don\u2019t think I ever put it down,\u201d she says. \u201cI always wanted to be a scientist\u2014right from the start. I had no idea that you could grow up to be something that didn\u2019t involve\u00a0science.\u201d Atencio is now a sophomore at\u00a0UNC, majoring […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9337"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9337\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47043,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9337\/revisions\/47043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}