Getting to know you

Hello! My name is Maura. I am originally from the South Hills of Pittsburgh. I enjoy riding horses, skiing, hiking, cooking, and traveling. I graduated from Penn State in May 2014 with a degree in forensic science (chemistry option) and minors in chemistry and psychology. I began doing research my junior year and following graduation I accepted a full-time position in the research laboratory.   I am a research assistant in an analytical chemistry lab that focuses on environmental and forensic applications. I live and work full-time at University Park. I am currently applying and interviewing for pharmacy school. My career goals are to become a pharmacist. I am currently taking courses to meet the prerequisites for pharmacy school. I have laboratory experience investigating environmental chemistry impacts on human health. I am excited for this class to display other perspectives on the environment. I hope to have a well-rounded understanding of the environment and how humans effect the environment after completing this course.

 

The United States of America has been experiencing an energy crisis.   The coal supply is rapidly decreasing and the USA is becoming increasingly dependent on the Middle East for oil. With the diminishing amount of fossil fuels in the USA and the government’s reluctances to rely on the Middle East, the USA has displayed governance. Foreign policy and natural resource constraints have resulted in unconventional shale gas drilling in America. People have expressed great concern about the sustainability of fracking. Many people are worried about the potentially detrimental impacts fracking could have on the environment. A fracking incidence could result in dangerous chemicals leaching into drinking water. This would affect a local scale in which small towns or counties could experience health effects if fracking sites were to contaminate drinking water supplies. Maps of the shale rock basins in the USA visualize the various shale basins present in the bedrock of America. The shale rock stretching across Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio is the Marcellus formation.

2 thoughts on “Getting to know you

  1. Hi Maura, my name is Zoe Schulte and I saw you liked horses so i began to read your blog! Like you, I enjoy horse back riding and am on the equestrian team at Penn State Behrend in Erie, Pa. I also think it is very interesting that you have a degree in forensic science. I like how passionate you are about the energy crisis that is currently going on in the U.S. Some topics, such as this one for me, are never brought to peoples attention and it is people like you that everyone else will learn from! Feel free to check out my blog.

    https://sites.psu.edu/wp-admin/index.php?page=msreader.php&module=my_posts&args=my_posts

  2. HI Maura:
    My name is Joe Carlamere here is a link to my blog posthttps://sites.psu.edu/geog30/wp-admin/post.php?post=41863&action=edit. I really enjoyed reading your post; forensic science is an interesting subject, last semester I took a chemistry class and thought it was a really cool class. I too enjoy traveling especially to warm tropical islands. I look forward to communicating with you throughout the course.
    Joe

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