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Arlene Ferguson Internship at Hilltop Gardens Undergraduate Requirements

Arlene Ferguson Internship at Hilltop Gardens Undergraduate Requirements

Arlene Ferguson Internship at Hilltop Gardens

Established in 1990 by local businessman and former Trustee of Indiana University, Mr. Stephen L. Ferguson, in memory of his mother, who helped establish the Hilltop program.

Eligiblility

Those with a demonstrated interest in botany.

Criteria

Must be of at least sophomore standing and have a minimum grade point average of 3.0. Graduating seniors may not apply.

Award

$500. Recipient serves an internship at Hilltop Gardens for 5-8 hours each week during the Spring 2018 semester, under the guidance of a Hilltop representative, who will assist in the selection process. The recipient must be enrolled in the Spring 2018 semester at IU Bloomington.

How to apply

Applications for this award are due Monday, February 20, 2017.

Application instructions Application form

Submit all materials listed on the application instructions. A letter of support must be submitted separately by a faculty member.

To apply, save the application form to your computer. Fill out the form using Adobe Acrobat Professional DC. (Acrobat Pro may be downloaded for free from under the "Design & Production" section of IUWare.) Choose "Save as" and rename your completed form as your Lastname_firstname_2017.pdf (Example: Wyss_kathy_2017.pdf). Mac users: Please take the extra step of opening your completed form in Preview, select "print," and then use the "Save as PDF" option to resave the form to ensure your application is readable in Windows.

Recipients of this award will be recognized at a student awards ceremony held on Friday, April 28, 2017, at 3:30 p.m.

Faculty/Postdoc Fellows: Please upload student award nominations and recommendations to the "Recommendations" dropbox.

Upload your application

Rachna Chaudhari, 2016 Ferguson Intern

Rachna Chaudhari earned the Arlene Ferguson Internship at the Hilltop Garden and Nature Center. This is the second year she was selected for this internship. Last year, Rachna’s duties there included managing student service learners; assisting with the overall organization of the greenhouse; and transplanting, propagating, and cleaning plants. Her second internship will take place during the spring 2017 semester, where she will continue to manage volunteers and help facilitate the annual seed kit project, where they put together kits containing seeds, soil, and trays for various area schools so students can start their own mini-greenhouses.

Rachna has worked on two research projects since joining Associate Professor Sid Shaw’s lab in 2014. Initially, she created a data set around an assay they developed for drug effects on growing plant seedlings. Then, based on her experience with the seedling assays, Rachna worked on a reverse genetic screen, setting up assays and plant crosses with several Arabidopsis stock mutants to look for specific growth defects.

She served on the steering committee and was an undergraduate moderator for the 2015 Hutton Honors Research Symposium. Since January of 2014, Rachna has volunteered at the WonderLab Museum of Science, Health and Technology, serving as a Discovery Coach.

Department of Biology

Arlene Ferguson Internship at Hilltop Gardens Undergraduate Requirements