The Class of 2008. Back row (l-r): Gabe Sidman, Kelsey Jacobsen, Jessica LeClair, Cara Donovan, Christina Comfort. Front Row (l-r): Bianca Kissel, Lindsay Michel, Katherine Serafin, Eliza Greenman, Kathryn Gutleber.

Christina Comfort
Major: Biology
Minor: Dance
Internship: Save Our Seas, Hanalei, Hawaii
Senior Integrated Project: Biologically Active Compounds in Coral Reef Organisms: Occurrence, Sustainability, and Effects on Marine Conservation Initiatives. Will look at the pharmaceutical uses of biologically active metabolites found in marine phyla and to research different options for sustainable harvest of useful compounds. Will discuss how these new discoveries can affect marine conservation initiatives and reef management.

Cara Donovan
Majors: Hispanic Studies/Environmental Studies
Internship: The Rainforest Education & Resource Center, Cusco, Peru
Senior Integrated Project: Ethnobotanical Uses of Plants at the Casa Matsigenka. The creation of a brochure for the Casa Matsigenka containing information for tourists visiting the center. The brochure will be made in two languages, English and Spanish. It will have maps of the lodge and surrounding trails created with GIS software that provides details about and locations of all the plants that were marked during my research there.

Eliza Greenman
Major: English
Internship: Norman Bird Sanctuary, Middletown, RI
Senior Integrated Project: Nature as a Theme in Selected Readings in American Literature. To explore the dynamic relationship between people and their environment, both historically and currently, and how this relationship is/was made manifest in literary works.

Kathryn Gutleber
Majors: English/Environmental Studies
Internship: E-The Environmental Magazine, Norwalk, CT
Senior Integrated Project: People, Planet, Profits: The Development of a Triple Bottom Line for Connecticut College

Kelsey Jacobsen
Major: Environmental Studies
Minor: Art/French
Internship: Operation Wallacea, Indonesia
Senior Integrated Project: An Assessment of the Socioeconomic and Ecological Influences of Marine Protected Areas in the Tropics. As human exploitation of marine resources escalates, marine protected areas (MPAs) are increasingly being turned to as management schemes. This project will attempt to characterize an effective MPA by balancing the ecological and social influences they have in tropical developing countries.

Bianca Kissel
Major: Environmental Studies
Minor: Botany
Internship: Cross-Cultural Solutions, Ayacucho, Peru
Senior Integrated Project: The Role of Coca Leaves in Human Health and the Environmental and Social Impacts of the Misuse of Coca to Produce Cocaine in Peru. My project will evaluate the health benefits of chewing coca leaves which are used widely in the Andean culture. It will also explore the misuse of coca to produce cocaine in Peru and how the cocaine industry is impacting the country environmentally, socially, economically, politically and internationally.

Jessica LeClair
Majors: International Relations/Environmental Studies
Internship: Snowchange, Varangerbotn, Norway
Senior Integrated Project: Will the North Melt Unnoticed? How Perceived Environmental Challenges Shape Our Future. This project will attempt to analyze why Arctic communities in Norway are less responsive to the threat of climate change as opposed to other environmental issues. I plan to investigate how 20 years of research and findings have affected the environmental actions in Norway.

Lindsay Michel
Major: Environmental Studies/Anthropology
Internship: Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center, Mashantucket, CT
Senior Integrated Project: Historic Land Use in the Connecticut College Arboretum. My project includes researching stonewalls and foundations to see how the land was divided in the past, producing parcel maps to show the land change throughout the years, and creating a database of information about the area and its landowners.

Katherine Serafin
Major: Environmental Studies
Internship: U.S.Geological Survey, St. Petersburg, FL
Senior Integrated Project: A Comparison of Beach Profiles on Constrained and Unconstrained Beaches. Groton Long Point and Bluff Point are two beaches in Connecticut similar in structure and in the fetch and wind energy they receive. While Bluff Point is a completely natural coastline, Groton Long Point is developed and backed by a seawall. This study will examine how a seawall influences differences in beach profiles in order to evaluate how anthropogenic activities affect beaches.

Gabe Sidman
Major: Environmental Studies
Minor: History
Internship: Gettysburg National Military Park, Gettysburg, PA
Senior Integrated Project: History Trumps the Turtle: A Comparative Analysis of the Simultaneous Management of Cultural and Natural Resources in the National Park Service