Summer Employees and Volunteers

White Memorial's summer wildlife field technician, summer intern, and volunteers are participating in a variety of wildlife-related projects throughout the property.

Andrea Petrullo

I found a dead thing!
(Woodland jumping mouse) 

     I graduated from the University of Connecticut in 2015, after studying natural resources with a concentration in fisheries and wildlife conservation.  I spent a summer working as a teaching assistant  for UConn's South African field ecology class, where I also worked as a field technician collecting jackal scat for dietary analysis.  After graduation, I worked as a volunteer field technician on Great Gull Island monitoring a colony of common terns. Before coming to White Memorial, I worked for three months in southwestern Louisiana on a noninvasive genetic study of coyotes to find possible instances of coyote/red wolf hybridization.  I'm very excited to be here at White Memorial, and look forward to the variety of work experience I'll get here.






Molly Mullen

Molly checking reptile boards

   Molly is going into her senior year at Yale University, majoring in molecular biophysics and biochemistry.  After spending a summer in Costa Rica doing fieldwork on the impact of traffic noise on birds, she wanted to explore possible career options doing fieldwork and working with wildlife.  She is interning here at White Memorial through the Yale Alumni Community Service Fellowship.  So far, she is most interested in our bat projects, the bat acoustic survey we conduct on behalf of the DEEP and the emergence count from the barn next to the museum.








Kiely Quijano

 Kiely is an eighteen-year-old sophomore at the University of Rhode Island, majoring conservation biology. She hopes to study abroad in Tanzania, and is interested in working for the National Park Service after she graduates.

Matt Squires

Matt collecting samples from our
southern pine beetle trap

     Matt is a senior at Unity College in Maine, majoring in fisheries and wildlife management.  He is volunteering here to fulfill an internship requirement.  He is interested in working with bears, and hopes that the data collection skills associated with this internship will help in his future career.

Christian "Snail Guy" Wiles-Lafayette

     Christian is a senior at Marist College majoring in environmental science.  In addition to helping out on our many wildlife projects, Christian is working on an independent research project on freshwater snails, testing water quality to determine possible factors affecting them.  He plans to become a male model or a trophy husband after graduating from college.







Kyle Farrell

Pictured above: not Kyle
(he didn't send me a picture)

     Kyle is a junior at the University of Connecticut majoring in environmental science.  He grew up near White Memorial, and is coming here to get more field experience before graduating.  He aspires to be the first volunteer this summer to get Lyme.
 












Shannon Smith

Pictured above: not Shannon
(She didn't send me a picture)

 Shannon is a student at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland.  A Litchfield native, Shannon is doing a research project on freshwater plants in Bantam Lake and several other nearby lakes.
 









Maggie Loery

Maggie trying to identify a
damselfly she caught

  Maggie is a student at Grinnell, and has been volunteering at White Memorial every summer for several years.  She's planning to be a biology major with a concentration in environmental science.










High School Students

Rachelle Talbot

Surprise bobcat!

     Rachelle is going into her senior year at Wamogo Regional High School.  She started volunteering at White Memorial the summer after her freshman year as part of Wamogo's Supervised Agricultural Experience.  Rachelle would like to teach an ag class in natural resources someday, though her mom says she should be a tattoo artist.






Ireland Kennedy

Ireland catching dragonflies to ID them

    Ireland is a student at Wamogo in the agricultural program.  She comes to White Memorial as part of Wamogo's Supervised Agricultural Experience.  She's been coming here for three years.










Emma Sonnati

Emma holding up the first
dragonfly she caught

   Emma is going into her sophomore year at Wamogo.  She's volunteering here for her Supervised Agricultural Experience.  She is interested in nature and conservation and wants to be a marine biologist.














Masen Williamson

Masen catching cerceris wasps to collect
their prey as part of our emerald ash borer
monitoring project

     Masen is going into the tenth grade at Nonnewaug High School.  He is volunteering at White Memorial because he is interested in conservation and is thinking about making a career out of it.











Ben Vermilyea

Ben collecting pollinators
for our native pollinator
project

     Ben is a junior at Litchfield High School. He worked on a year-long research project at White Memorial last year, trying to determine whether or not invasive earthworm activity was impacting water quality.  Ben presented his findings to the Natural Resources Conservation Academy, and he was awarded the first place scholarship.  He has returned this year to continue getting fieldwork experience working on a variety of projects.  For more information on his project last year, check out this blog post.