Week One: Getting to Know the Author

23 May Week One: Getting to Know the Author

Hello everyone! My name is Aliya Khan and I am a Mosaics in Science intern working at Shenandoah National Park this summer. I am originally from Washington DC but grew up abroad in Malaysia, Thailand and Spain before moving back to DC and attending high school in Maryland. Currently I am a third-year student at the University of British Columbia majoring in Natural Resource Conservation with an emphasis on science and management. This summer in Shenandoah I will be working as a member of the botany crew on a sub-project monitoring rare plants in the Big Meadows wetlands. The Big Meadows hold 18% of the park’s rare plants species, however high deer densities have affected the survival of these plants leading the park to create 5 enclosures in 2008. Now, 10 years later, a formal resampling of the plants is being led by the botany crew to assess the abundance of the rare plants. This will be my first job working with the National Park Service and I am really excited to be working with Environment for the Americas and Greening Youth foundation as a Mosaics in Science intern.

Hiking at home in MD, along the C&O canal

Hiking along the beach on Wassaw Island in GA