March 28, 2024

Belmont Portrayed Award Winners Announced

Gari Melchers Home and Studio has announced the People’s Choice cash award winners for the current “Belmont Portrayed” exhibition, which features art depicting the Belmont grounds and buildings, in celebration of the museum’s 40th anniversary. Elena Broach of Fredericksburg earned the first-place award of $1,000 for her piece, “Eleven Steps.” In second place was Jenna […]

Digging for Answers

The name says it all – “Contrary Creek.” The polluted tributary to the North Anna River and its lifeless red tint rattle the science community that surrounds it. Louisa County locals worry that eating fish from the creek will make them sick. Boats don’t dock nearby for fear of corrosion.

Senior Maura Slocum

UMW senior Maura Slocum has spent nearly half her college career studying the effects of this particular pollution and searching for ways to reverse it. An environmental science major and member of the President’s Council for Sustainability, Slocum is driven to reduce humans’ negative impact on nature. Her research on the soil near Contrary Creek proves that plant vegetation can help mop up the mess not only at this site but also in similar situations across the country.

Caused by a mine abandoned a century ago, the damage occurred when rain leached heavy metals, such as lead, copper and zinc, from the soil and mixed them into the water.

With Associate Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences Melanie Szulczewski and lab partner senior Taylor McConnell, Slocum sowed grasses and ferns in the affected area. The plants survived and, perhaps more importantly, helped improve soil and water quality by sucking up the chemicals that caused the pollution in the first place.

Slocum and her group join a long list of scientists who have explored Contrary Creek. During the ’60s and ’70s, she said, UVA researchers studied the site, and remediation efforts by the EPA in the ’70s failed.

“We’ve learned that the grass is an effective remediation tool,” said Slocum, who is president of the UMW Outdoors Club and an Eagle Landing senior resident assistant.

The lessons they’ve learned at the Louisa County site can be applied to other areas, said Szulczewski, who is currently researching soil contamination in Poland. “With thousands of old mine sites across the country, the knowledge we gain about this kind of [contamination] could have broader impacts.”

She will present her findings at UMW’s Student Research and Creativity Symposium on April 22. Now in her last semester at UMW, Slocum devotes most of her class time to research, spending endless hours in the Jepson Science Center lab and finishing her already 55-plus-page thesis.

“She is extremely bright and motivated, and she puts her ideals into action,” said Szulczewski. “Seeing her mature as a scientist has been a pleasure.”

After graduation, Slocum will use the knowledge she gleaned from her UMW research to serve the Peace Corps in Senegal, where she’ll work in agroforestry, using trees to increase soil fertility. She’ll join more than 230 Mary Washington alumni who’ve served in the Peace Corps since its inception in 1961.

“The Peace Corps is the perfect place to implement what I’ve learned about environmental science,” said Slocum. “I’ll be able to work with the environment as an agroforester while also encouraging the understanding of what sustainable development really means.”

 

UMW Leads Global Two Dollar Challenge

For the 10th consecutive year, the University of Mary Washington will lead the global Two Dollar Challenge April 4-8 to raise awareness of global poverty. The five-day awareness program challenges college and high school students across the United States and around the world to live on just two dollars a day. Participants buy food, hygiene products and […]

UMW to Host 26th Annual Multicultural Fair

The University of Mary Washington will celebrate culture and diversity at the 26th Multicultural Fair on Saturday, April 9. Hosted by the James Farmer Multicultural Center, the fair is dedicated to showcasing as many cultures and cultural expressions as possible through a variety of ethnic performances, international foods and craft merchants. Nearly 100 vendors, spread […]

UMW to Host Screening of The Burden

The University of Mary Washington, in partnership with international environmental consulting firm Marstel-Day and the Rappahannock Group of the Sierra Club, will host a screening of the film The Burden on Tuesday, April 5. The film aims to educate the public about the burden that fossil fuel dependence places on the United States and its […]

Mailbox Match

Gin and Steve Schaffer ’95 met because of the UMW mailboxes.