杰西卡·卡斯蒂略·瓦尔达罗:鼓舞拉丁裔学生
By Brett Bralley
编者注:2022年8月，美国国家科学基金会 授予杰西卡·卡斯蒂略·瓦尔达罗50万美元的资助 to better understand how the American pika has responded to past environmental changes
with the goal of better predicting their response to current and future environmental
change.
Additional editor's note: On Nov. 10, 2021, the Animal Welfare Institute 授予杰西卡·卡斯蒂略·瓦尔达罗克里斯汀·史蒂文斯野生动物奖 以表彰她对美国鼠兔种群及其对人类脆弱性的研究
behaviors.
Jessica Castillo Vardaro, assistant professor of biology at San José State University, 记得那个夏天她爱上了大自然. She was just 5 years old.
The Santa Ana, California, native and her family piled into their red 1985 Chevy Astrovan for a trip across six different U.S. 国家公园，包括锡安国家公园， Yellowstone Park and the Grand Canyon.
“I remember seeing coyotes, bison, deer, moose, bighorn sheep, squirrels and chipmunks,” Castillo Vardaro recalled. “我太兴奋了，我知道我想要 work outside in nature. 当我回想起我决定成为一名野生动物的时候 biologist, it has to be during that trip.”
Today, Castillo Vardaro studies the American pika — a small rabbit-like mammal living in the mountains of western North America — to learn how climate change and human behavior impact native wildlife.
The American pika. 图片来源:Michael Hernandez, 22届生物学硕士
虽然她的研究揭示了人类影响环境的方式， it serves another purpose: to empower students to become scientists, especially those 谁可能没有这样的机会.
Since she joined San José State in 2019, Castillo Vardaro has tried to remove barriers to research opportunities for underrepresented minority students, including Latino/a, Latinx and Hispanic students. 她还致力于让这些学生走上这条道路 为了成功，同时培养社区意识.
“在我的工作中，我是一名讲师，一名研究员和一名导师，”她分享道. “I use all three of those parts of my role to increase participation of underrepresented groups 在科学领域，更普遍，在野生动物研究领域，更具体.”
From mountains to freeways
From left, Michael Hernandez, ’22 MS Biology; Emily Hadjes, ’22 MS Biological Sciences;
和卡斯蒂略·瓦尔达罗在红杉和国王进行了一个夏天的实地研究
Canyon National Parks
Castillo Vardaro and two of her graduate students spent this past summer hiking, backpacking and camping in the mountains of northwestern Nevada and in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. Their mission? 收集鼠兔的粪便，他们和本科生 学生们随后将在卡斯蒂略·瓦尔达罗的实验室进行分析.
“We also were counting and identifying all the plants around the areas where the pikas lived,” Castillo Vardaro said. “我们研究了过去和现在有哪些植物 比较它们选择吃的植物.”
Understanding what pikas were eating — and why — could reveal a lot about how they 适应环境以及什么会导致它们灭绝，卡斯蒂略 Vardaro explained.
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例如，鼠兔可以选择吃一些营养较少但更容易吃的东西 available. 也许因为干旱，人们喜欢的食物不再有了，更高 temperatures or even humans manipulating vegetation for cattle grazing, Castillo Vardaro said. 这可能会揭示人类行为对动物的潜在长期影响 the pikas’ habitat and food sources.
这些发现也可能对地球产生影响.
“Think about squirrels, racoons and opossums in the San José area,” Castillo Vardaro said. “这对他们的人口意味着什么，他们过去能够旅行 from the hills in the East Bay all the way to Santa Cruz in the peninsula — but now 在他们的道路中间有一座大城市?
“Or what does it mean if we put a big six-lane highway through some species’ natural habitat? 通过了解气候变化或人类活动带来的威胁， 我们可能会限制我们的影响，以帮助这些种群生存.”
Field research in downtown San José
卡斯蒂略·瓦尔达罗深知，学习成为一名野生生物学家可以 be expensive. 进入这一领域需要经验，这最终可能会成为一笔财富 burden on students, she explained.
As an undergraduate at the University of California, Berkeley, Castillo Vardaro found a paid part-time job at the university’s Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, where she gained 这段经历帮助她迈出了第一步. But not everyone is as fortunate, she said.
她解释说:“学生们通常负担不起无薪的实验室工作。. “It’s really 当你已经需要一到两份工作时，很难获得合适的经验 jobs to pay your bills.”
Even those who might be able to sacrifice income for volunteer experience could end 因为重要的实地研究机会的成本而却步.
“很多这样的机会会要求学生来做暑期志愿者 and to bring their own tent, and a $300 backpack, $200 boots and a $100 jacket,” she explained. “这些机会花费了很多钱，这是一个真正的挑战 many students.”
这就是为什么卡斯蒂略·瓦尔达罗试图消除这些类型的原因之一 of obstacles by not only offering paid opportunities for graduate and undergraduate 学生们在她的实验室里，还把实地研究带到校园里.
In January 2020, she jumpstarted an urban ecology research project on the 菠菜网lol正规平台 campus. Students could study the different varieties of squirrels (there are two you’ll find in most parts of San José, Castillo Vardaro said) to better understand their adaptation habits.
The project was put on hold during the pandemic, but Castillo Vardaro hopes to revive it soon.
“这个项目背后的主要动机之一是试图让学生们拥有 these practical, tangible experiences without having to travel and invest,” she said. “They can walk around campus and observe squirrels and learn lots of field techniques without needing to go up to the mountains, plus gain analytical and lab experience.”
Beyond the research
曾有一段时间，22岁的生物科学硕士艾米丽·哈杰斯(Emily Hadjes)认为她会这样做 never get into graduate school.
“I thought that I did not belong,” recalled Hadjes, who is of Peruvian heritage and identifies as Latinx. 她是收集样本的研究生之一 Castillo Vardaro over the summer.
“I used to have this idea in my head that a scientist had to be a certain way, and 不管那是什么，我都不适合，”她说.
卡斯蒂略·瓦尔达罗指出，哈吉斯的看法很普遍. That’s one of the reasons she serves as the faculty advisor for 奇卡诺人和美洲原住民科学促进会 at 菠菜网lol正规平台. 她想要消除拉丁裔和土著学生的许多观念 可能具备成为科学家的条件.
“STEM专业的学生面临着很多挑战，”她说. “A lot of them might come into their first year thinking, ‘I’m going to be a biology or chemistry major,’ and then they don’t do so well in their intro classes and think, ‘Oh well, I guess I’m not good enough.’ Then, they switch majors.
“In reality, you could fail your bio or chem class, but still end up perfectly successful,” she continued. “大学和高中不同，所以有很多原因 why someone wouldn’t do well in a class.”
SACNAS is about providing a community for these students so that they don’t feel isolated 卡斯蒂略·瓦尔达罗解释说，当遇到逆境时，他们也不会轻易放弃. By offering students of similar backgrounds an opportunity to network with one another, plus tools for professional development, she said students can feel uplifted and supported.
Learning from Castillo Vardaro helped Hadjes put to rest any of her self doubt about her future as a scientist.
“Dr. 卡斯蒂略·瓦尔达罗理解我，相信我，”她说. “Being mentored by someone who is also of Latinx descent has been such an uplifting experience. 她让我觉得自己属于这里，也属于科学领域.”
Michael Hernandez, ’22 MS Biology, another student who worked with Castillo Vardaro over the summer, agreed.
“I have had a number of jobs in which I may have been the only Latinx member present, so having a [principal investigator] who looks like me has been a refreshing change. It reinforces the notion that I can succeed in my studies and career objectives, and 在我选择的领域里有我的一席之地.”
Castillo Vardaro understands the value of learning from someone who comes from a similar background. 她很早就意识到，当她加入圣何塞州立大学时，她不是 她刚刚进入教职岗位——她是在满足需求. She hadn’t even shown up on campus once she was hired before a buzz started circulating about a new Latina professor in the sciences.
“学生们给我发邮件，告诉我他们想见我，”她回忆说.
“Growing up, I never had any professors, role models or mentors who looked like me or shared my experience. 我来圣何塞州立大学的动机是 主要是一所本科院校，也是一所为西班牙裔服务的院校. The student 身体确实反映了该地区的人口结构.
“Sometimes I like to fade into the background and focus on myself, but here I have 这个重要的角色内置，要可见. So I want to do my very best with that.”
Learn more about Castillo Vardaro’s lab.
