Women in Science Day - Laura
Saturday February 11th was the International Day of Women & Girls in Science. To mark it, we decided to reach out to women involved with Andover Trees who have a scientific or STEM background, and ask them to write something about their experiences. Have a look back at the previous five posts if you’ve missed them, and keep an eye out for the final one tomorrow.
Laura Morrell, ATU Ecology Intern
It’s a bit strange to think of myself as working in science, but I am - I’m an ecology intern. I’ve felt for a long time that university wouldn’t be right for me so I don’t have a degree, but do have a Level 3 Diploma in Land & Wildlife Management and am learning on the job.
Since starting this role last month I’ve been working through all the data collected during last year’s wildlife surveys in Harmony Woods - organising, analysing, calculating statistics, identifying patterns. Next I’ll be writing the report for it, outlining the findings and suggesting reasons for what the data is saying (e.g. why there is an abundance of a particular plant in one area and hardly any in another), plus suggesting steps that could be taken to maintain or improve the habitat (e.g. for certain priority species). The annual report helps the ATU management team make decisions about what needs to be done in different areas of the site. Between April and October, my work will be outdoors doing this year’s surveys, recording species and numbers of wildflowers, birds, pollinators, butterflies, pond invertebrates, and hopefully reptiles. I’m also co-leading ATU’s youth group.
I’ve long been fascinated by a range of scientific topics, but in quite a passive way. When it comes to the science that I’m working in now - ecology - I’ve loved the natural world my whole life, and got upset and angry about the damage being done to it, but never really got up close and involved with it, taught myself about aspects of it, or got my hands dirty.
I did well in school, but at 16 I didn’t know who I was or what I wanted to do, and received little to no careers advice. That combined with undiagnosed autism, depression, and academic courses that were assessed solely on exams, meant I did badly in college. Afterwards I worked part-time in retail for a long while, then got a Business Admin apprenticeship and had office support jobs for 4 years. They weren’t bad, but I was far from content. Then I was made redundant two weeks before the first national Covid-19 lockdown, which gave me a chance to stop and reconsider. My daily walks helped me reconnect with my love of nature and I decided to apply for a course in countryside conservation at Sparsholt College.
At the time I wondered why on earth I hadn’t done it sooner… but actually I wouldn’t have been ready any sooner. I’m not the same person I was when I was younger, and she did the best she could with what she had at the time. But deciding to return to education and going to Sparsholt was the best decision I’ve ever made, and I’m so lucky and grateful I had the opportunity and support to be able to do it. The course covered a wide range of practical and theoretical subjects, was assessed in different ways, and the tutors were brilliant. I absolutely loved it - especially the units on ecology, ecological concepts, environmental science, and coastal habitat management - and I figured out where my strengths lie and what tasks I find satisfying.
Studying or working in something you find interesting, where you can do the things you’re good at, and help contribute to something you care about, really does make a difference. Compared to failing my A-Levels at 18, at 28 I tried again with something else and achieved a Distinction*. I did my end-of-year work experience placement with Andover Trees and carried on volunteering with them afterwards. This field is really competitive so volunteering and gaining experience is incredibly important. I know that not having a degree will make it harder for me to access some jobs, and I’m open to studying for a degree one day if it will be of real benefit and I feel ready, but the experience I’ll gain with this internship will be really valuable too.
You don’t have to know what you want to do in the future. I still don’t. And it’s never too late to make a change if you want to. Just follow your curiosity and learn about things that interest, fascinate, and excite you, try different things and find out what you’re good at, and see what happens.
As for why I love science… in short, it’s because it gets me buzzing with excitement at just how mindbogglingly awesome everything is. Ecology is the study of how living organisms interact with each other and with their physical environment. The vast interconnectedness of it all is astonishing and awe-inspiring - not just the food webs, but also that what animals are present in a habitat is influenced by what plants are there, which depends on the climate (which is influenced by various things) and the soil composition, which depends on the underlying geology, which is itself a record of Earth’s incomprehensibly long and strange past. And everything has a place in the ecosystem, no matter how small and insignificant (or unpleasant, or boring) it may seem to some. Without understanding ecology we cannot understand the extent of the damage we as humans are causing to this planet that we are utterly dependent on, or hope to heal it.