Congratulations to Kate Hartshorn ’23, who will travel to Rwanda this summer after being accepted into theKate Hartshorn '23 National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates (NSF REU) program through the University of Southern California Los Angeles.

Originally from Denver, Colorado, Hartshorn will graduate this spring with a B.S. in Environmental Science and Policy and a minor in University honors. In her last semester with Chapman, she began a research project with Dean Thomas Piechota focused on hydrology and studying snowpack and snowmelt in Western Colorado. She is also involved with a climate communications project exploring attitudes toward climate change in Orange County.

During the International Summer Research Experience (IRSE), Hartshorn will work with other students and professors at the University of Rwanda to either study soil moisture and evapotranspiration at coffee plantations or focus on an ethnographic study to understand the people working with coffee. Most of this research will occur in Rwanda’s Southwest, Eastern Nile Basin region. The program will use the food-energy-water-livelihood nexus approach, the state-of-the-art approach for water resource management that considers the co-benefits and tradeoffs in managing interconnected resources (land, water, and energy).

Thanks to Piechota, Hartshorn learned about the Rwanda IRES program. She also shared her gratitude for Chapman’s Environment Science and Policy program, as her professors consistently provide extra resources and opportunities for all students in the program.