Major: Mathematics
Minor: Geography
Hometown: Lincoln, NE
Jasmine knows that everyone who participates in UCARE (the Undergraduate Creative Activities and Research Experience program) ends up saying the same thing: no matter what you’re working on, the skills you gain working on a Husker research team pay off in anything you do.
According to Jasmine, that’s because it’s true.
“People talk a lot about the ‘soft skills’ you pick up in UCARE—things like communication, planning, working in teams—and I think that’s been a really valuable thing for me. Especially talking to people about your work, which is something I felt I wasn’t very good at before.”
Throughout the last year, Jasmine joined PhD student Jim Benes’ doctoral research team to examine the history of wildfires across the Nebraska Sandhills. A geography minor, the experience gave Jasmine a hands-on opportunity to (literally) dig deeper into her interests.
“They extract a ‘soil core’ with a device that’s basically a massive straw. We cut the core into centimeters and analyzed the amount of charcoal in each centimeter, with more charcoal meaning more fire during that timeframe.”
This analysis took Jasmine and her team way, way back in time.
“The further down the core you go, the further back you’re looking. We got all the way into the late Pleistocene Epoch.”
Jasmine was also happy to discover that the time she spent assisting Benes with his research built more than just research skills.
“I keep in touch with Jim—we still meet weekly just to chit chat, talk about the project and about school more generally,” says Jasmine of her new mentor. “He was a great supervisor and really made an effort to get to know me and my coworker as people.”
Inspired by her experience, Jasmine is joining the Office of Research and Innovation's apprentice program next year to gain insights into the administrative side of research. She encourages all Huskers, regardless of their major, to give UCARE a shot.
“I would recommend it to anyone. It's an amazing learning opportunity and just a cool way to meet more people.”
