National Science Foundation Research Traineeship
A photo of myself and some of the other trainees during a group hike. As a group, we do social activities to help form more personal relationships within the NRT.
Click on this link if you would like to learn more about the program, trainees, advisors, and other information. Interacting with advisors from different fields has not only what work is being done in the climate hazard and resilience field of science, but how others are approaching their projects based on their own backgrounds and experiences.
The National Science Foundation (NSF) Research Traineeship (NRT) Program at Auburn University is an NSF-funded program that aims to prepare the next generation of scientists to combat climate hazards and increase community resilience to climate hazards. The program is interdisciplinary and features graduate students from numerous departments such as Geosciences, Crop, Soil, and Environmental Sciences, Rural Sociology, and Foresty and Wildlife Services. Each trainee has at least one area of their thesis or dissertation that relates to climate change and climate change resilience. Through this program, I have been able to attend special talks on these topics, meet students and faculty I would not have met otherwise, have opportunities to present my research to different stakeholders, and get advice on how to tailor my research to real-world applications. In the traineeship, we are also paired up in mentor-mentee relationships with other trainees. I have enjoyed this because my mentors have been helpful in providing me with useful resources for my research, but are also a supportive and encouraging environment. Without NRT, I would have not been able to meet one of my mentors since she is in another department, and this shows how beneficial the interdisciplinary program is to graduate students.