Macy Cook

During week four, a large portion of my week was spent on campus at the University of Maryland for our Campus Residency Tour. During this tour, I became acquainted with my fellow interns, networked with University of Maryland staff and faculty, participated in leadership training sessions, and toured many agricultural greenhouses and labs on campus. The first area on our agenda was leadership training with Myles Alexander. This training was one of my favorite aspects of the residency tour as I felt this time facilitated team building among the interns and allowed us to participate in many fun and engaging activities.

Our first afternoon on campus consisted of touring the research greenhouse, aquaponics greenhouse and lab, and the fermentation lab. The highlight of the afternoon was touring the aquaponics greenhouse and lab. My university has an aquaponics greenhouse on our student farm, so I was excited to compare the similarities and differences of the two universities’ aquaponics programs. I enjoyed seeing the larger scale operation and advanced electronic system of the University of Maryland’s greenhouse. I additionally enjoyed touring the research greenhouse, and I found one of the most interesting aspects of this tour to be the temperature-controlled research chambers. Our final tour of the day was the fermentation lab, which is one of the newer labs on campus. I was honored to be one of the first groups to tour the lab and hear about the process necessary to let students under 21 participate in the fermentation program.

Plants grown inside temperature-
controlled chambers in the UMD
Research Greenhouse.

Lettuce grown in the UMD
Aquaponics Greenhouse.

The newly built Fermentation Lab.

Our second day was filled with leadership training with Antonio Silas, a mixer networking lunch, and touring the Bioenergy and Bioprocessing Tech Lab, Water Quality Outreach & Wellness (WOW) Lab, Campus Learning Garden, and Campus Farm. My favorite location for this day was the Campus Farm. While at the farm, we toured the various livestock buildings, including equine, cattle, sheep, goats, and chickens. I found it really fascinating that the campus farm was situated in the center of the city. The student farm at my university, The University of Mount Olive, is located seven miles outside of town, in the heart of Eastern North Carolina farmland. It was very interesting to witness how the University of Maryland has efficiently utilized the four acres of land to accommodate many different types of livestock, livestock barns, and grazing areas in the middle of campus.

While the Campus Farm was my favorite tour location for this day, I also greatly enjoyed the other three areas of campus we toured. In the Bioenergy and Bioprocessing Tech Lab, I was fascinated to learn how the lab is transforming waste into usable products and energy. The WOW Lab implemented an engaging experiment that allowed us to collect our own water samples from water fountains around the building and test the water for E. coli. The Campus Garden was an additional space that I really enjoyed touring and learning about how the University is working to combat food insecurity through this garden.

The UMD Campus Learning Garden
that the campus utilizes to combat
food insecurity. 

Waste sorting buckets in the Bioenergy and
Bioprocessing Tech Lab to sort collected
waste that is later converted to energy. 

There were no blue dots on our E. Coli
tests, which means the building's water
fountains tested negative for E. Coli.

While I greatly enjoyed touring the different areas on campus, the leadership training sessions helped me form my leadership philosophy and realize the kind of leader I desire to be. The sessions helped enhance my idea of leadership by teaching that anyone can be a leader, everyone leads differently, and leadership exists in many forms. When Antonio Silas had us develop our leadership philosophy, I shared that I have previously had negative experiences with leadership in the past that have helped form my leadership philosophy. My philosophy includes facilitating an environment where everyone feels comfortable inputting thoughts and ideas, acting to lead and mediate the conversation when problems arise while not dictating the conversation, and being open to receiving feedback from those I am leading to improve my leadership abilities. Throughout this internship, I can achieve these leadership aspirations by working with my fellow interns during our weekly discussions to ensure everyone feels comfortable inputting their thoughts and ideas and that the conversation is lead and meditated effectively. The campus tour has been one of the highlights of my internship as I connected with my fellow interns, toured various University of Maryland labs and greenhouses, and networked with UMD faculty while learning how to be effective in my leadership abilities.