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Emily Wagner didn\u2019t set out to study algae twice.<\/p>\n
The University of Toledo senior, an environmental science major from Dearborn, Michigan, spent her first two college summers in the lab of Dr. Thomas Bridgeman, professor and director of the University\u2019s Lake Erie Center, studying the harmful algal blooms that plague the lake each year.<\/p>\n
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Emily Wagner, a senior in environmental science, turned a rejection into a return offer and a childhood aquarium visit into a summer researching coral reef restoration in the Florida Keys.<\/p>\n
This past summer, she found herself hundreds of miles away in the Florida Keys and, almost by coincidence, back on the subject of algae.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt all leads back to the algae,\u201d Wagner said with a laugh.<\/p>\n
A Long Road to Toledo<\/p>\n
Wagner\u2019s path to UToledo wasn\u2019t a foregone conclusion. She toured 15 schools across the Midwest and Florida before choosing The University of Toledo, and what won her over wasn\u2019t a single feature so much as a feeling.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe faculty were great and so supportive,\u201d she said. \u201cThey were interested in me and my goals, and I knew I had found my place.\u201d<\/p>\n
She chose environmental science over marine biology for the practical reason that a landlocked state doesn\u2019t make for an easy entry into a competitive, ocean-focused field, but that didn\u2019t stop her from finding her way to the water anyway.<\/p>\n
An Internship Years in the Making<\/p>\n
This summer, her path led her to Mote\u2019s Elizabeth Moore International Center for Coral Reef Research & Restoration in Summerland Key, Florida, where she worked under the mentorship of Dr. Jason Spadaro and staff biologists at the Grazer\u2019s Lab.<\/p>\n
The lab\u2019s focus was raising Caribbean king crabs \u2014 a native reef grazer \u2014 to a size where they can be outplanted onto restoration reefs alongside coral. The crabs help control the overgrowth of macroalgae, easing one of many stressors on coral that Wagner calls \u201cthe most sensitive animals on planet Earth.\u201d<\/p>\n
Getting there took persistence. Wagner first applied as a sophomore and didn\u2019t get the internship, which went to an older student who needed it to graduate. But her interviewers told her to stay in touch, and she did.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey said, \u2018We have been thinking about you all year. We wanted you,\u2019 \u201d Wagner recalled of her eventual acceptance.<\/p>\n
The connection to Mote traced back further still, to a rainy-day visit to the aquarium\u2019s Sarasota campus during a family vacation years earlier, when Wagner struck up conversations with staff and volunteers and came away certain she wanted to work there one day.<\/p>\n
Finding Her Footing in the Field<\/p>\n
The summer brought more than lab work. Wagner attended research conferences, met scientists from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and finished the open-water scuba certification.<\/p>\n
It also reshaped her sense of what a career in marine science could look like. Where she once envisioned a straightforward path into research and graduate school, Wagner is now weighing time on a field team against a longer-term interest in public outreach and science education.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are so many cool jobs that exist,\u201d she said. \u201cNow I\u2019m thinking, I just want to do everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
Through it all, she credits UToledo\u2019s emphasis on experiential learning as being invaluable.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the networking and meeting people,\u201d she said. \u201cEspecially in these kinds of fields, it\u2019s really all who you know.\u201d<\/p>\n
Leadership Beyond the Lab<\/p>\n
Back on campus, Wagner serves as chapter president of Pi Beta Phi. She\u2019s also been involved with the Society of Environmental Advocates and the women\u2019s ministry group Soul Purpose. She chose those three commitments deliberately, she said, to cover academic, faith-based and social needs without overextending herself.<\/p>\n
\u201cGet involved, but be intentional about it,\u201d Wagner advises future Rockets. \u201cDon\u2019t have too much on your plate.\u201d<\/p>\n
One campus project brought her worlds in and out of the classroom together at once: a campus cleanup and native-plant restoration at the memorial for Melissa Hurstrom, a Pi Beta Phi sister who passed away several years ago.<\/p>\n
Wagner connected her chapter with Dr. Todd Crail, a Distinguished University Lecturer in the Department of Environmental Sciences who advises the Greening UToledo through Service or GUTS program, to turn the cleanup into an alumni event that brought back sisters who had known Hurstrom.<\/p>\n
Crail, Wagner said, has been a constant presence throughout her time at UToledo. \u201cEven through the smallest, most minor things, I sent him an email and he\u2019s replying in 15 minutes,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Crail gives credit to Wagner for perseverance.<\/p>\n
\u201cEmily came in with a strong sense of who she was and a clear goal: to conserve marine ecosystems,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat she has done so successfully is accept opportunities that were obliquely related to that goal, while realizing that \u2018no\u2019 is actually \u2018not yet.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cShe continues to get closer to the mark, refining the next steps she would like to take, and I cannot wait to see what the future holds for her.\u201d<\/p>\n
Looking Ahead<\/p>\n
As she starts her senior year, Wagner is still weighing exactly where her degree will take her. It could be a field team, graduate school, public education and outreach, but she\u2019s confident in the foundation she\u2019s built.<\/p>\n
Her advice to incoming students echoes the approach that\u2019s carried her from Lake Erie to the Florida Keys: get involved, connect with the people who believe in you, and don\u2019t be afraid to reapply.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Emily Wagner didn\u2019t set out to study algae twice. The University of Toledo senior, an environmental science major…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":286376,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[136,138,137],"class_list":["post-286375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-erie","tag-erie","tag-erie-headlines","tag-erie-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=286375"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286375\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/286376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=286375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=286375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=286375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}