Hello, my name is Virginia Heaton and I am from Nashville, TN. I am a sophomore at UTC majoring in Environmental Science, Conservation of Biodiversity with a minor in Biology. Mostly I am interested in doing research regarding the conservation of our aquatic ecosystems, whether it be fresh or saltwater. Besides that I also hope to combat atmospheric and water pollution, but essentially want to help the world see other species as valuable coexisting beings on our planet. In the future I do wish to teach and conduct my own research to help future generations better understand and love the world around us.
As of right now, I spend my time outside of school perusing hobbies and hanging out with friends. Point Park on Signal Mountain is one of my favorite mountain hiking trails with stunning cliff side views of the river. It does not matter what time of year it is, as long as the sun is out and I am dressed in the proper clothes I will bask in the sun for a few hours gazing into the surreal, quiet landscape. Similarly I enjoy spending my evening hours drawing under dim lighting in the quiet of my room. I do not believe much of my art is anything fancy, but I love using bold marker color combinations to capture the emotion behind each sketch.
Besides enjoying my free time I also work at Taichi Bubble Tea since I have myself and two cats to take care of. Poppy and Greg are the lights of my life and bring me joy at the end of each day. Having animal companions has definitely helped to alleviate my transition into adult life and life is always better with animal to cuddle with at night! But overall I am always excited for a new college semester to start up.
For the next few months I will be embarking on an ecological journey and reporting all data on this site. Ecology is a very important subject that studies ecosystem and community interactions among organisms of varying species. While most people think it only pertains to plants, ecology actually is a statistically focused biological science that works to understand the webbing of our ecosystems. Throughout this blog, I hope to engage audiences of all backgrounds with the magic of ecology. Ultimately my goal is to bring a fun and creative twist to my lab experience so anyone can have a little ecological knowledge under their belt!
Ecological Report 