Collegiate Congrats: Larson "escapes" N.D. to fulfill dreams

I was just a freshman enjoying spring break when I read the cursed email from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities telling us not to come back to campus for an extra week. I wasn't upset at the time, because it appeared like a bonus vacation! Who could have imagined I would be an incoming junior before campus reopened? In the meantime, I took classes online from my bedroom in Sheyenne. As you can imagine, it's hard to feel connected to your alma mater when you're studying six and one-half hours away. By spring of 2021, I was anxious to get back on campus and get to know my department of Civil, Environmental, and Geo-Engineering, so I sent emails to all the professors I knew (and many whom I didn't know yet) who would be conducting summer research.

I "escaped" North Dakota when St. Anthony Falls Lab, located on the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, hired me for the summer as an undergraduate research assistant. I was monitoring the health of ponds in the suburbs by going out in a kayak, collecting samples, and analyzing them at the lab. Lawn fertilizer with phosphate is a big problem because it runs off into rivers and lakes where it causes algae and weed growth that chokes out fish. The research goal is to determine if a new type of treatment is successful at removing the phosphorus in ponds, so that they could treat lakes in the same way. I was able to apply what I learned in chemistry classes to the lab and what I learned on the farm to the "field work"; loading the company truck with kayaks and equipment and driving it around Minneapolis. You probably wouldn't be surprised how little city folks know about ratchet straps. Every Wednesday, someone from my research group would give a presentation about their past projects as a PhD candidate, graduate student, or engineer. When my turn came around, I gave a presentation about Sheyenne. I started an interesting dialogue with my coworkers about rural agricultural communities and hopefully opened their minds to other ways of doing things. What we in Sheyenne like to call "Small Town Spirit" is not too common everywhere else.

I have found a community in my department at the U of MN. There are 15 of us in the Environmental Engineering Class of 2023, which is a small group on a campus of over 36,000 undergrads. Getting to know my classmates for the first time starting last fall, when classes finally came back in-person, has been truly great. When classes were online, all I had to focus on was homework and exams, and it took a toll. In-person classes have been more valuable, not only academically, but also for the personal connections made. By the way, it's easier to earn brownie points from your professors in person! Now I can say I am enjoying my college experience, and the Civil Engineering Building study lounge is my home away from home. Knowing I have support back home in Eddy County sure helps, too!