Like many others, sophomore Johanna Whetstone chose Muskingum because of the faculty-student relationships she knew she could develop at Muskingum. Coming from a small high school, she knew that was what she needed in order to succeed.
Whetstone, a chemistry major with a pre-medicine track, is the New Member Educator for the FAD sorority. She is vice-president of the Pre-Health Club, a tour guide, involved in music and music theater and played varsity volleyball for two years.
In the summer of 2016, Whetstone worked as a Muskie Fellow at The Wilds, where she and other students, together with their advising faculty members, worked on three reclaimed surface mines at the Wilds. She explains the work they did: “[We] determine[d] trends in various species of birds based on the month, the vegetation, and the age of the surface mine. We did point counts and line transects which methods to determine a number of each species of bird that is in a 90 meter radius and we also did vegetation surveys to determine the types of vegetation in those radii.”
Although the summer research that she conducted was not in her intended career field, Johanna says it, “taught me various research methods and really gave me a new appreciation for a field that I'm not familiar with. If nothing else, the experience will benefit me and really give me a great talking point and way to stand out to medical boards. I would not trade this experience for the world.” She adds, “Drs. Ingold and Dooley were absolutely wonderful to work with this summer. They made the experience incredibly rewarding and not to mention, really fun.”