My name is Emily Lehman and I majored in Environmental Science. I graduated from the University of South Carolina with a bachelors in science in environmental science, and I graduated with my Associates in Science degree May 2020 with Leadership Distinction in Research. I wanted to graduate with this honor to highlight my hard work in research. In the fall of 2020, I transferred to University of South Carolina, Columbia to finish my baccalaureate degree. After I finish school, I would like to work as an environmental scientist and help converse the earth.

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As I began my college journey, my original major was pre-pharmacy. I thought I was going to end up at Mercer’s pharmacy school fall of 2020, but I realized that I wanted more time to decide if that was something I was 100% committed to doing. I ultimately decided to change my major to environmental science because I feel there are more career pathways to take and I have a huge heart for the environment. Since my first day of college, I have wanted to be involved in undergraduate research. A friend and I took the initiative to ask one of our biology professors if we could help him with his heron research. In our research, we compared at the forging rates of the great blue heron in the spring to the fall with dam generation. In my independent research class, I had the opportunity to design my own research project. I researched the antimicrobial effects of hydrosols and essential oils on several different microbes. 

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Growing up, I was a competitive swimmer. I swam on SwimMAC Carolina and other teams for fourteen years. Swimming taught me so much that I am thankful for today. Since it is an individual sport, it taught me to be independent and to not rely on other people for things. It also taught me how to work hard for what I want and strive to be the best person I can be every day. There is only one thing you can do when swimming a long-distance set: push yourself and work hard doing it. All these qualities helped me in my research because they reminded me to stay on top of my work and keep going, even on the days data collection was difficult and frustrating.

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Here at USCL, I am president of the Chemistry Club. In this club, we do chemistry related activities such as chemistry demonstrations on campus, help the chemistry classes in local high schools, and hold meetings to discuss upcoming events. In this leadership role, my main job is to communicate with the club and make sure everyone knows about future events/activities/field trips. This is a huge skill I’ve learned and have incorporated into my research. I communicate with my research professors very frequently about what needs to get done and how it will get done in a timely manner. 

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Hopefully this gave you a little insight about me and how I became who I am today. My e-portfolio contains three key insights that I learned during my time with research. My first key insight is about the scientific method. I have been using the scientific method since elementary school, but my science lab classes helped me fully understand why using that standardized process is so important, especially in research. My second key insight is about reverse persuasion. This key insight taught me about keeping an open mind which you need to have when doing research. My third key insight is about the zone of inhibition and I discuss how this microbiology topic relates to my life. Just like the solution making boundaries, keeping away the microbe on the TSA agar plate, I needed to learn how to set my own boundaries. My leadership section contains a proposal on how to help high school students have a smooth transition from high school biology to college biology without having a gap in learning. Enjoy the rest of my portfolio. 

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