SNRAS names outstanding students

The geography outstanding student for 2011, Lorna Curran (pictured at right), took an interesting sideroad to arrive at UAF.

Curran, raised in Cape Cod, Mass., is a pharmacist who answered an ad about coming to Alaska to work for Safeway. She had previously been here on vacation and decided to make a change and move here five years ago. She loves Alaska but wishes her family was closer. Curran began taking classes at UAF, dabbling in everything from arctic survival to drafting.

Once she took a class with SNRAS Assistant Professor Patricia Heiser she was hooked on one subject. “Geography appealed to me most of all,” Curran said. “Dr. Heiser encouraged me to declare it as a major.”

Curran works three part-time jobs while attending school full time. “It just works,” she said. “I have to do careful scheduling.”

She has been on the dean’s list every semester and was chosen as the geography program’s Maxwell Scholar last fall. She is active in the Geography Club and volunteered to help with a robotics competition and GeoFest, an event held during Geography Awareness Week.

People who have influenced Curran are her parents and Dr. Heiser. “She has wonderful faith in my ability to do stuff, more than I have,” she said.

In her free time, Curran enjoys needlework, knitting, cooking, sewing and spinning.

Nicole Torre

Nicole Torre is the outstanding student for high latitude agriculture. Torre hails from Anchorage and said getting to UAF was a long journey. When she first started college at UAA, intending to study psychology, things didn’t work out and she left school for seven years.

She traveled a lot and then worked for musher Jeff King near Denali National Park. There she met her fiancé, Jeff Wells, a UAF student and the rest is history. “I knew I wanted to be outside and I started thinking about biology or natural resources,” Torre said.

Torre routinely makes the chancellor’s list and is interested in melding science education and outreach. “I would like to help bridge that knowledge gap,” she said. “Who knows what the future will hold? I definitely want to stay in Alaska and I would really like to have a job that combines the scientific, biological side of natural resources.”

Torre participated in a NASA Spacegrant project, compiling data on climate change for the Alaska Bird Observatory and Creamer’s Field Refuge. She worked a summer in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, gathering data on longspurs. Last summer she did songbird banding for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in the Tetlin National Wildlife Refuge. Her emphasis on birds happened by chance. “I really like birds but this kind of happened by default,” she said.

This summer Torre will return to Tetlin to do phenology work for the USFWS. She spent part of the winter in India where she paid special attention to natural resources issues. “It was interesting to see how they make it work with that many people,” Torre said. “Everything about it is one huge dichotomy. You’ll see a brand new BMW sports car next to a wooden cart.”

Reading the works of Jack London and Gary Paulsen affected Torre’s life decisions. “A multitude of people along the way have influenced me and brought me to where I’m at,” she said. Torre likes to go skijoring and cross-country skiing and would someday like to have her own kennel.

Cassie Wohlgemuth

Born and raised in Anchorage, Cassie Wohlgemuth grew up with an interest in nature and came to SNRAS with a passion for ecosystems and sustainability. She is the forest sciences outstanding student for the second year in a row.

Wohlgemuth has worked as a summer intern for the Division of Forestry, maintaining trails, measuring plots and tracking invasive weeds. Her student job has been working with soil samples and shrubs from Toolik for Syndonia Bret-Harte. She won the Richard E. Lee endowment scholarship of $3,000 and a $1,000 award from the Society of American Foresters. Her career goal is to work for the National Park Service. This summer she will work at the Wedgewood Resort, creating a resource management plan, which is her senior thesis project.

In her spare time Wohlgemuth enjoys cross-country skiing, snowboarding, swimming and hiking. She is involved with the UAF Dance Team and is a regular on the dean’s list.

She is looking forward to graduating in December and will likely pursue a master’s degree in natural resources. She is engaged to be married to Karlin Swearingen and is training to run the Equinox Marathon in September.

Teslyn Visscher

Teslyn Visscher, the natural resources outstanding student, grew up in Haines and intended to be a paramedic. A UA scholar, once she got to UAF, Visscher began looking more into degree options and chose natural resources.

“I can see myself staying in Alaska and working for an agency like the Department of Natural Resources or Fish and Game,” she said. She has already worked for Fish and Game, studying Steller sea lions off Prince of Wales Island.

Visscher is routinely on the dean’s or chancellor’s list and is active in intramural sports such as basketball, soccer and broomball. She loves cross-country skiing, snowboarding and camping. Last year Visscher attended Western State College of Colorado on the exchange program.

She credits her family with being really supportive of her.