By Grace Layman
Grace Layman is a junior at UNC-Chapel Hill majoring in environmental sciences with a concentration in ecology and natural resources. Grace is a recipient of the Institute for the Environment’s Molchanov Scholar Award for the summer of 2025.
Finding Community
As a freshman at Carolina, I struggled to find an academic community that resonated with my interests. Through my involvement with Epsilon Eta, UNC’s Environmental Honors Society, I found a new passion for studying and understanding ecosystem interactions, services, and functions, as well as how these things are affected by anthropogenic climate change. I discovered an amazing field of study–ecology. However, I struggled to find other students who shared an interest in the field and opportunities to gain experience within the field.
I became determined to bring these opportunities to UNC and began researching ways to start an ecology club. Through my research, I came across the Ecological Society of America’s (ESA) undergraduate program, Strategies for Ecology, Education, Diversity, and Sustainability (SEEDS). SEEDS aims to provide resources and community for students interested in ecology, helping to bridge the gap between students and opportunities that may otherwise be inaccessible for many students. One aspect of these resources are fully funded trips to research stations across the nation and an opportunity to attend the Ecological Society of America’s Annual Meeting, where students have the opportunity to interact with the top ecologists in America. Eager to bring these amazing resources to UNC, I successfully created a SEEDS chapter at UNC and began hosting bi-weekly meetings with our chapter.
Taking Research on the Road
Through SEEDS, I have been able to participate in several fully funded research trips. My first experience took place at the Konza Prairie Biological Station in Manhattan, Kansas. Accompanied by two other UNC students, I spent three days at the biological station learning about the research conducted on the station and setting up a small research project of my own creation! This trip was truly transformative for me; it was my first time flying and traveling independently, and it allowed me to see ecological theory applied in real world settings.
If it weren’t for the field experiences I received through SEEDS, I would never have discovered my love of research, and I would have no idea how to get involved with ecology research on campus.
Eager for another opportunity to see field ecology in action, I applied and was accepted to another SEEDS research trip during the Spring semester of my sophomore year. This trip took place at the UGA Marine Institute on Sapelo Island, Georgia. In addition to receiving more transformative research exposure, I had the amazing opportunity as a returning participant to mentor other students who had not yet been on a SEEDS trip. These trips made me fall in love with research, which caused me to return to UNC eager to dive into a research lab. Through this, I began to volunteer in the Hurlbert Macroecology Lab at UNC. I later assisted the lab as a field technician and received a SURF grant from the Office of Undergraduate Research to conduct my own research on a rare periodical cicada emergence in the research triangle.
If it weren’t for the field experiences I received through SEEDS, I would have never discovered my love of research, and I would have no idea how to get involved with ecology research on campus. One of my biggest takeaways from my time in SEEDS is that there are opportunities out there for anyone passionate enough to find them. If you can’t find that passion in others, you must cultivate it yourself. I made it my goal to cultivate this passion, bring my experiences back to UNC, and act as a mentor to undergraduates interested in a career in ecology.
After two years of acting as the president of UNC’s SEEDS chapter, I have connected with numerous first and second-year biology and environmental science students who struggled to figure out how to break into the field of ecology. It has been incredibly rewarding to act as the mentor for underclassmen that I always wished I had during my first and second years at Carolina. I am so excited for the future direction of our chapter as we prepare to send another first-year student to a SEEDS field research trip to UVA’s Coastal Research Center this May!
Most recently, last August, I was selected to attend the 2024 ESA Annual Meeting in Long Beach, California, with all expenses covered by the ESA. This week long conference brought together hundreds of professional ecologists from across the country to share their latest research. I received one-on-one mentorship from Alyson East, a former ORISE fellow and a current PhD candidate at the University of Maine. Alyson and I discussed her career in spatial ecology–a field I am becoming increasingly interested in– her experience as a woman in the field, how to make the best out of the conference, and the next steps for my academic and professional career. It was extremely meaningful to have a mentor with similar interests and lived experiences as me, and it was an opportunity that I believe has shaped my future career trajectory. This conference acted as a culmination of my time with the SEEDS program. It is amazing to look back at where I was in my career before founding SEEDS at UNC and see how much I have developed as a young professional and leader. The ESA’s investment in my future through these numerous opportunities is something that I will never take for granted.
Getting Involved
At UNC’s chapter meetings, we offer students a variety of resources, including speaker series from diverse ecology professionals, science-based social events with other members, and volunteer opportunities with local organizations. Perhaps most exciting, on April 21st, we will be hosting UNC’s Annual Climate Change Symposium, where students interested in climate change can hear from undergrads, graduate students, faculty, and industry professionals about the state of climate change and actionable solutions toward a sustainable future. We would love to see undergraduates and members of the UNC community at this event, as well as at our bi-weekly meetings!
For those students interested in getting involved with SEEDS please contact Grace at egrac@unc.edu and follow SEEDS on Instagram @seedsatunc.