Like so many Harvard undergraduates, when Jennifer L. Levye ’11 arrived at Harvard almost four years ago, she was initially set on being pre-med. But her longtime interest in the environment lingered, and after discovering the Harvard Forest Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program later that year, she became interested in gaining research experience through the ecology program.

Although Levye was too late to apply, she followed her passion and took an ecology course and an introductory Organismic and Evolutionary Biology course her sophomore year and finally applied for the REU program. Her interests began to wander away from pre-med and toward ecology. After spending the next summer at Harvard Forest, she abandoned her pre-med requirements to focus solely on ecology research.

Harvard Forest’s REU program gives students from universities across the country, sometimes with little to no ecology research experience, the opportunity to conduct projects for 12 weeks during the summer.

Through independent research, which results in a final paper and presentation, the 20 to 35 students in the program gain skills and scientific knowledge and are supported by a network of mentors and their fellow students, resulting in what many say is a life-changing experience.

“I started out pre-med. After Harvard Forest, I realized I liked trees more than I liked studying people,” Levye says.

In addition to her passion for trees, Levye discovered a small, tight-knit academic community. In the Forest—70 miles away from Harvard’s campus—the former pre-med found her academic calling and a group to support her.

ROOTS OF FOREST

Harvard Forest, located in Petersham, Mass., was established in 1907 as a self-sustaining laboratory for Harvard’s Forestry Department and has since expanded to 3500 acres of land with research facilities. In 1998, it became part of the Long Term Ecological Research Network, a group of 26 research sites that share data and mainly receives its funding from the National Science Foundation.

“Being a part of the network gives us funding, infrastructure, and community. We also get to have projects that run for multiple decades looking at the Forest,” says Clarisse M. Hart, outreach and development manager for education and research programs at Harvard Forest.

Although students have been involved with the Forest since its foundation, David R. Foster, Harvard Forest’s director, started the REU program in 1985. Since then, student researchers have become a cornerstone of the Forest.

“We’re working on projects in the fall and the spring, but during the summer, the Forest becomes more of a hustling and bustling place,” says Edythe Ellin, Harvard Forest’s director of administration.

CLOSE MENTORING, CLOSE COMMUNITY

As a first step in the process, students apply for a particular project which has been developed by a REU mentor. If admitted, students work with the mentor for the duration of the summer. Students develop close relationships with their mentors, which often extend beyond the REU program.

Levye was unsure of which project to apply for, so she went to OEB Professor Noel “Missy” Holbrook, who was leading a project, to ask for advice. Ultimately, Holbrook became Levye’s mentor for the summer and for the rest of her college career.

Levye continued to work in Holbrook’s lab and Holbrook has since become her thesis advisor.

Holbrook, a professor of forestry at Harvard, has been a mentor since 1996. She leads projects with REU students and her doctorate or graduate students.

“I choose students who will be an asset to the project and who show a lot of initiative. [Levye] hadn’t done any research, but she worked in theater on the set and lighting crew. That’s an example where you think on your feet,” Holbrook says.

Even students outside of Harvard connect with mentors early on. Relena Ribbons, who attended the program in 2008, is a 2010 graduate of Wellesley College. Her project involved studying the effects of insect infestation on hemlock forests in Connecticut.

“After I decided to apply I was already in contact with my advisor, [David A. Orwig]. I was already discussing his research. Making that contact was important,” Ribbons says.

The other researchers are also approachable for students, according to those involved with the program. Foster is a frequent presence as a mentor and an evening lecturer, and he also takes the students on a hike or a field trip every summer.

The REU program includes other events outside of research such as weekly seminars and workshops. Living in two houses throughout the summer, the students bond with each other on weeknights and weekends.

“I was kind of expecting to go into the program and be spending a lot of time by myself working on my project, but I had a lot of time to interact with the other students,” Ribbons says.

Although some projects, like Ribbon’s, take place away from the Harvard Forest, all students live there. Each year, students organize trips off-site such as hiking in the White Mountains.

“It’s like a summer camp for almost-grown-ups,” says David Diaz ’06, who first participated in the program in 2003.

ACADEMIC AWAKENINGS

The REU is open to all undergraduates and recently-graduated students. Participants come from a wide range of concentrations.

Diaz, at the time a history concentrator, was looking for a summer opportunity close to Boston and learned about Harvard Forest through an e-mail on his House list. He contacted Aaron M. Ellison, a senior research fellow in ecology at Harvard Forest, and learned about a project that involved identifying and counting ants.

“Few students have experience doing that at college,” Diaz says. “I’d always been good at science and math, but I never really considered it a career or a study option.”

Diaz’s experience motivated him to create a special concentration of environmental history. Now he works as a forest carbon associate at Ecosystem Marketplace, an environmental non-profit in Washington, D.C.

Although Ribbons was involved in research prior to the program, the REU pushed her to attend graduate school. Ribbons is pursuing a Master of Science in forest resources at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

“Harvard Forest was a good academic awakening, and after that I was a super-charged battery, ready to go,” Ribbons says. “Before I would just wander outside. After the REU program, I knew I was going to grad school.”

Alumni say the REU program was one of their best college experiences. Many students have returned to the Forest, while others have let the experience propel them into graduate school or careers in ecology.

Alumni also say that they have continued to benefit from the connections they made during the program.

“It’s not that often coming into your profession that you have a lot of connections,” Diaz says. “It’s very nice to have a network.”

LOOKING AHEAD

In order to be funded by NSF, the program must be continuously reinvented.

Administrators at the REU are hoping to encourage students to do more work in teams and engage in an interdisciplinary approach.

“We’re working on making the projects reach across even more programs at Harvard from history, biology, and computer science,” Foster says.

The Forest is hoping to foster this collaboration through a January term experience. Students will spend a week at Harvard Forest to learn about conservation in New England.

Compared to the REU program, students will focus on conservation from an interdisciplinary perspective and will be required to interpret the issues through a final presentation, which could take the form of artwork or historical analysis.

Furthermore, program alumni agree that the Harvard Forest is an underutilized resource at Harvard. Administrators hope that programs like the J-Term initiative will encourage more students to become involved.

“Most people don’t even know Harvard has a forest,” Levye says. “It’s a great resource. Whether or not you are doing research or science at all, it’s great to just go there.” “Most people don’t even know Harvard has a forest,” Levye says. “It’s a great resource. Whether or not you are doing research or science at all, it’s great to just go there.”

­—Staff writer Kerry M. Flynn can be reached at kflynn@college.harvard.edu