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The following feature story appeared in the campus publication MOSAIC in April, 1997.
Keri Holland '97
Bringing a global perspective to the environment
Senior Keri J. Holland's interest in the environment is truly global in scope. The native of Cape Cod, MA, has conducted environmental research as close to her home as Woods Hole, MA, and as far away as Palau, a remote island group in the Pacific. At Trinity, to help her more fully understand the complex issues involved in protecting the environment, Holland designed an environmental and public policy major that would expand the scope of her studies beyond the sciences.
"I'm very interested in how science is translated into public policy and how public policy puts a value on science," Holland explains. Biologists and economists are so polarized in their views on the environment, she contends, that they tend to see no middle ground. Holland hopes that her understanding of both science and public policy will one day enable her to bridge that sometimes contentious gap and develop solutions that respond to the concerns of both economists and environmentalists.
Holland traces her interest in the natural sciences to her childhood years in Cataumet, MA. "We used to go digging for hermit crabs on the beach," she recollects. Through the guidance of her father, who was then a pharmacist, her interest in the natural world grew to encompass chemistry.
Holland's first opportunity to examine the relationship between the environment and public policy occurred in high school. At Bourne High School, her sophomore biology class studied an area of wetlands across from the school. Convinced that the wetlands, which was a breeding ground for the spotted salamander, could serve as a valuable educational facility, she and her classmates approached the owner of the land and asked him to donate it to the town. Following a series of public hearings, the town became the owner of the land, which is now used by students for environmental education.
Seeing environmental issues with more depth
When Holland enrolled at Trinity, she expected to major in chemistry in preparation for medical school. Her desire to pursue a more interdisciplinary approach led her to design her own major. "It has given me a more specific focus and broader perspective than a single major in the sciences would have," she observed. Her interdisciplinary course of study also led her to rethink her career plans; medical school is no longer in the picture.
By integrating her study of biology, anthropology, and public policy, Holland has been able to explore the evolution of environmental issues in greater depth, she believes. "Through anthropology, I saw how different cultures regard and use their resources," she says. Incorporating the field of biology into her course of study allowed her to understand what was happening in individual ecosystems. "I started out by looking at how humanity, through its use of resources, influences the global climate," she explains. She has since narrowed her interest to the effect global warming is having on nutrient cycles in soil. The subject, which has become her senior thesis, resulted from research she performed last summer at the Marine Biological Laboratories in Woods Hole.
Biology Laboratory Coordinator and Lecturer in Biology Michael A. O'Donnell praises Holland for her intellectual curiosity and desire to learn. "She's a student who's really self-motivated. Her thesis has far-reaching effects. We hope that, by looking at these preliminary data, people will realize that this is somewhere to focus their studies on global warming," he says.
Testing theories in the field
Last semester, Holland pursued her interests on the remote island of Palau, participating in a course of study in affiliation with the School for Field Studies, a Massachusetts-based organization which focuses on environmental field studies. Holland studied the effects of development -- specifically, nonbiodegradable waste -- on the island, which has no paved roads or running water. Her study there involved conducting trash counts of the island's landfills. She discovered that, as the influence of American products spreads, the packaging of foods is creating new problems in waste management. "The Palauans are used to picking papaya and bananas off trees and throwing the remains over their shoulder. But when you throw an aluminum can over your shoulder, it doesn't rot; it rusts. When you throw batteries over your shoulder, they seep into the mangrove."
Since her return to Trinity this semester, Holland has narrowed her global perspective and focused her efforts on improving the quality of life in Hartford. Hoping to organize the members of her fraternity, St. Anthony Hall, in a large-scale community service project, she arranged for them to tutor students from Hartford's Bulkeley High School in math and English.
Following graduation, Holland plans to continue her research at Woods Hole and attend graduate school, in preparation for a career with an international conservation organization. First, however, she plans to continue her global exploration by traveling to Singapore and Malaysia, and to Hong Kong, where she will visit her brother. As she looks back on her time at the College, she reflects, "I can't begin to quantify how much I've learned here over the past four years. At Trinity, you're constantly being inspired to do different things."
-- Suzanne Zack and Michael Bradley '98