{"id":1063,"date":"2020-04-21T11:56:08","date_gmt":"2020-04-21T15:56:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.seagrant.w3.uvm.edu\/2020\/04\/21\/nisha-nadkarni-integrates-community-engagement-and-watershed-science\/"},"modified":"2025-10-22T17:49:23","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T21:49:23","slug":"nisha-nadkarni-integrates-community-engagement-and-watershed-science","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uvm.edu\/seagrant\/2020\/04\/21\/nisha-nadkarni-integrates-community-engagement-and-watershed-science\/","title":{"rendered":"Nisha Nadkarni Integrates Community Engagement and Watershed Science"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tSenior Nisha Nadkarni \u201920, is an Environmental Sciences major in the University of Vermont (UVM) Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources<\/a>. She combined her academic work with her interests in community development and water quality to engage with local residents to improve stormwater quality in the Lake Champlain watershed. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tNisha began her journey at UVM intending to study exercise science, but she switched into the Rubenstein School a week before classes started.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019m so glad that I made that decision and followed my gut rather than realizing junior or senior year this was something I was interested in,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\n\tOriginally from Westborough, Massachusetts, Nisha chose UVM because she wanted to stay in New England but explore beyond her hometown. She says that Vermont has been the perfect balance for her.<\/p>\n

\n\tDuring the spring of her sophomore year, Nisha became interested in water quality, and she started looking for ways to learn more outside the classroom through research.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s really awesome that we have these research opportunities directly within Rubenstein,\u201d she said. \u201cI applied to a few related to water quality and got the chance to work at the Rubenstein Ecosystem Science Laboratory<\/a> on the waterfront. That was my first foray into field work and working on a research vessel.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tNisha spent the summer after her sophomore year working with Dr. Mindy Morales-Williams, a professor in the Rubenstein School. As an intern in Dr. Morales-Williams\u2019 lab, Nisha investigated how excess nitrogen and phosphorus influence cyanobacteria populations in northeastern lakes.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThat experience exposed me to the inner workings of research and experimental design,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\n\tTo complement her Environmental Sciences major, Nisha chose a concentration in Ecological Design. She collaborated with her peers on a constructed wetland project and bio retention cells.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt was awesome to do these hands-on projects and see water get treated from a system that a group of us built together,\u201d said Nisha. \u201cThat really reinforced my interest.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDeciding to explore stormwater further, the summer after her junior year, Nisha took an internship with Blue BTV<\/a>, a program that partnered the City of Burlington, Vermont with Lake Champlain International<\/a> and Lake Champlain Sea Grant<\/a>. Here, she consulted with local residents on how best to manage stormwater on their properties.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI talked with a lot of different people\u2014real face-to-face conversations with local residents\u2014about how we can all collectively work together to improve the water quality of Lake Champlain because we\u2019re all living in this watershed and it\u2019s our livelihood,\u201d said Nisha.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe transition from collecting data and conducting lab work to engaging with communities both challenged and motivated Nisha, who was used to the STEM fields and working with data, evidence, and statistics.<\/p>\n

\n\tVisiting people\u2019s homes and talking to them about stormwater infrastructure to put on their property was different,\u201d said Nisha. \u201cThey\u2019re not coming from that perspective of stats and numbers; they just want to know what they can do to contribute. It made me excited that there can be a collaboration between these communities and the scientific world.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tNisha has accepted a position to work as a consultant with Blue BTV after graduating in May.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI want to keep exploring,\u201d she said. \u201cWherever I end up, I want to truly know the place and know the history before I came to be there. I want to have a connection to wherever I am.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Senior Nisha Nadkarni \u201920, is an Environmental Sciences major in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1707,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_eb_attr":"","_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-1063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uvm.edu\/seagrant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uvm.edu\/seagrant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uvm.edu\/seagrant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uvm.edu\/seagrant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uvm.edu\/seagrant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1063"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.uvm.edu\/seagrant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1063\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1384,"href":"https:\/\/www.uvm.edu\/seagrant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1063\/revisions\/1384"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uvm.edu\/seagrant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uvm.edu\/seagrant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uvm.edu\/seagrant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uvm.edu\/seagrant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1063"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uvm.edu\/seagrant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=1063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}