Mercy is Hawk Mountain Sanctuary collaborator from Cedar Crest College who graduated with her B.S. in Biology in 2020. I co-advised her honors thesis at Cedar Crest with Dr. Allison Cornell. Her honors thesis focused on microbial colonization and development across gut tract regions in the European starling, for which she acquired $700 in research grants! Mercy was also instrumental collaborator for a project investigating the relationship between microbial diversity and diet in American kestrel nestlings (Houtz, Melo, et al. 2023. Journal of Avian Biology). In addition to research, she was captain of the field hockey and tennis teams, a resident hall director, and President of the Tri-Beta National Biological Sciences Honor Society at Cedar Crest. Now Mercy is a PhD Student in the Department of Environmental Conservation at University of Massachusetts Amherst.
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