{"id":8326,"date":"2025-04-04T16:13:49","date_gmt":"2025-04-04T21:13:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/?p=8326"},"modified":"2025-04-04T16:13:49","modified_gmt":"2025-04-04T21:13:49","slug":"folk-of-noke-lauren-young","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/?p=8326","title":{"rendered":"Folk of \u2018Noke: Lauren Young"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Lauren Young is a senior from Yorktown, Virginia, double-majoring in environmental studies and biology.\u00a0 She is the former president of AKX, a subject tutor for GIS, and a research fellow.\u00a0 \u201cI worked with Dr Steinweg for my first three years here.\u00a0 We did soil research, which involved looking at different characteristics under restoration treatments over at the Environment Center.\u00a0 Unfortunately, she left, so this year, I’m working with Dr Collins, and I’m looking at smooth coneflower population dynamics. It’s a federally threatened plant species, and we’re looking at if deer are impacting their plant size and population size.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201cWhen I became president of AKX, I didn’t expect how much time it would take to manage a group like that.\u00a0 It was a learning experience, learning time management and making sure everyone’s doing their job, while also balancing school and extracurriculars. So, yeah, here’s a lot more that goes into managing a big group of people than people think.\u00a0 For example, during rush week, we have events planned every night for people to come out and see what we’re like.\u00a0 We have to make sure we buy all the supplies, which involves checking out the credit card and making sure that the members are showing up and know what’s going on.\u00a0 On top of talking to all of the new people at the event, it can be really overwhelming.\u00a0 My first time, I just wanted everything to go right, so I made sure I was doing everything, and it was daunting.\u00a0 But I made it, and it was a good experience. It taught me how to do it better the next time.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201cI really like to do puzzles, which is not something that people always like<\/span><\/p>\n

to do.\u00a0 I think it’s relaxing, though a lot of people don’t.\u00a0 As I grew up, my sister and I would always do puzzles, and it’s just something that takes my mind off other things.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201cOriginally, I wanted to play soccer in college, hopefully at a small school, and I was looking at schools in Virginia.\u00a0 Roanoke was one of the ones that I found, and ultimately I didn’t play soccer, but I really liked the area.\u00a0 I grew up by the beach, so I wanted to go into a new environment, and being close to the mountains was something that I wanted to experience.\u00a0 The small class size, the programs they offer, the campus environment, and the liberal arts approach to classes we\u2019re the main reasons for my choosing Roanoke College.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Regarding her plans for after graduation, Lauren said, \u201cI wanted to go to grad school to get a master’s in ecology, which is not looking great because of funding.\u00a0 So I\u2019m planning to go back home and find a job around there, like an entry-level environmental ecology type job.\u00a0 My backup option is to join the Appalachian Conservation Corps.\u00a0 I spent a summer with them last summer, and I really liked it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201cI’m a very structured person, but at the same time, I always change my mind about things.\u00a0 One minute, I’m really into reading, the next, I’m really into doing puzzles, the next, I’m really into coloring.\u00a0 So while I look very organized and structured, I’m also kind of all over the place.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201cI\u2019d like to thank my parents, who\u2019ve been very supportive throughout my time here; my friends, both hometown friends and the friends that I’ve made here; my boyfriend Luke, we’ve been together since high school and I couldn’t be here without him; everyone in AKX was super awesome, especially during my presidency, all the leadership and exec board members helped me get through everything; and lastly, my professors, really all of them, but I want to highlight Dr Collins, Dr Peters, and Dr Steinweg, because they gave me a lot of opportunities. They have guided me in these four years, and I feel prepared to go out into the field with their help.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Juniper Rogers<\/p>\n

Section Editor<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Lauren Young is a senior from Yorktown, Virginia, double-majoring in environmental studies and biology.\u00a0 She is the former president of AKX, a subject tutor for GIS, and a research fellow.\u00a0 \u201cI worked with Dr Steinweg for my first three years here.\u00a0 We did soil research, which involved looking at different characteristics under restoration treatments over…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":8327,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-folks-at-noke"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Linkedin_Picture.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8326\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}