{"id":16458,"date":"2018-11-13T10:37:45","date_gmt":"2018-11-13T15:37:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/?p=16458"},"modified":"2018-11-13T10:37:45","modified_gmt":"2018-11-13T15:37:45","slug":"best-of-both-worlds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/2018\/11\/13\/best-of-both-worlds\/","title":{"rendered":"Best of Both Worlds"},"content":{"rendered":"

Master\u2019s student and marine resource scientist Hannah Horecka divides her time between UMaine and the state\u2019s Department of Marine Resources<\/em><\/p>\n

Hannah Horecka graduated from UMaine in 2012 with a Bachelor\u2019s degree in Marine Science. A student in the Honor\u2019s College, Horecka\u2019s honor\u2019s thesis was on biotoxin trends (such as red tide) in Cobbscook Bay\u2014research that helped land her a contract position at the Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR) shortly after graduating and a job as a staff scientist in 2015.<\/p>\n

In January 2018, Horecka circled back to UMaine as a Master\u2019s student in the School of Earth and Climate Sciences and began taking graduate courses\u2014her first being a hydrology class taught by associate professor Sean Smith<\/a> of the School of Earth & Climate Sciences and the Mitchell Center. She is working with Smith, now her advisor, on a larger project regarding land-sea interactions in coastal pollution.<\/p>\n

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Hannah Horecka<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Like Horecka, Smith had one foot in academia and one in a state environmental agency from his time as an undergraduate and master\u2019s student at the University of Maryland through his Ph.D. work at Johns Hopkins. And he strongly believes Horecka will benefit from straddling both worlds.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a great way to hone in on real-world problems and real technical issues,\u201d Smith says. \u201cYou\u2019re in the middle of it all as opposed to sitting on the sidelines until you graduate. I can\u2019t say enough about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Says Horecka, \u201cWithout any real-world work experience it\u2019s easy to overlook coursework you later realize you should have paid attention to. For example, as an undergraduate, there were things I thought would be incredibly important with my career goals in mind but I don\u2019t use as much in this position.\u201d She adds, \u201cNow, as a graduate student, I know what I need to concentrate on to use in my position as a DMR marine resource scientist.\u201d<\/p>\n

At DMR, Horecka manages the shellfish flats\u2014mussels, oysters, clams, and quahogs\u2014from Stockton Springs to Schoodic Point.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy job is to take the data and determine if they meet the standards for shellfish harvest to see if they\u2019re safe for human consumption,\u201d says Horecka. She looks mostly for fecal bacteria, E. coli<\/em> specifically. \u201cHowever,\u201d she adds, \u201cwe do also manage around oil spills, heavy metals, contaminants from industrial activities, and other deleterious substances.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Master\u2019s student and marine resource scientist Hannah Horecka divides her time between UMaine and the state\u2019s Department of Marine Resources Hannah Horecka graduated from UMaine in 2012 with a Bachelor\u2019s degree in Marine Science. A student in the Honor\u2019s College, Horecka\u2019s honor\u2019s thesis was on biotoxin trends (such as red tide) in Cobbscook Bay\u2014research that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":963,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","spc_primary_category":0},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":3,"label":"News"}]},"featured_image_src_large":false,"author_info":{"display_name":"","author_link":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/author\/"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":3,"name":"News","slug":"news","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":3,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":606,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":3,"category_count":606,"category_description":"","cat_name":"News","category_nicename":"news","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/963"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16458"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16458\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16597,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16458\/revisions\/16597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}