Ana Soto, Spring '23 Outstanding Senior

Can you tell us a little about yourself and your experience in the environmental science program?

"Hi, my name is Ana Soto and I am a recent graduate from Environmental Science. I chose the emphasis of physical and chemical dynamics, and I also did a minor in chemistry. So my experience as an environmental science student at the University of Arizona started in the spring of 2021. I transferred from Pima Community College, I quickly reached out to Dr. Julia Neilson to get a position in her lab. And so I kind of I was interested in getting involved with the department and sort of any events that were out there. So I first got involved in research and then that turned out pretty good. And a year later I was still doing research, but I also decided to join the Peer Mentor program in the department. And so I would say I had a pretty like active involvement in any outreach and events that were part of Environmental Science." 

Why did you want to get involved in environmental science at The University of Arizona?

"I actually wanted to go into chemistry, but I thought it was pretty broad, so I wanted to apply chemistry somewhere. And then I learned about sustainability the senior year of my high school. So I thought combining like sustainability and science would be a good fit for me. And then I found the Environmental Science Program at the U of A, I'm originally from Mexico, so it was just a no-brainer to come here. I compare the program to ASU and NAU and thought the UA had a really good robust program for environmental science. So that just solidified my desire to come here." 

You were in a research lab for a couple years, could you tell us about that experience?

"So my junior year, I was pretty much in the wet lab the whole year. I work mostly on a Guayule project and guayule is a plant that produces natural rubber. So it's currently being developed as a domestic source of natural rubber in the US. So we were working on a soil search study where we well, I was in charge of keeping the fill moisture contents of the guayule soil. So we brought into the lab. And so after that project Priyanka, which is our research scientist in the lab, will do a greenhouse study. And so I was pretty involved with that project. And then my senior year was pretty much just doing a bunch of data analysis, I spent a lot of time working in Excel and just manipulating data and like doing the statistical analysis, which really strengthened my data analysis skills. because I took the statistical class of environmental science, it was really easy to do." 

Can you tell us about your internship experience and how that affected your career path?

"Summer of 2022, I got an internship with a global mining consulting firm, which is SRK Consulting, and I would say was a pretty good experience because it gave me that exposure to the consulting side of environmental science and also with mining. Because of that internship, I got more interested in learning about the mining industry and kind of like the practices they do and how we use environmental sciences can help mitigate some of the environmental impacts of mining practices. And so it was a really good experience. I learned a lot and I didn't realize it was going to help me so much getting a full time job after graduation. Whenever I would say to employers that I had that internship, they would be immediately interested." 

What plans and goals do you have for the future?

"I'll be working in New Mexico as an environmental specialist for the Ground Reclamation Project with Barrick Gold, which is a mining company. The site was a former uranium mill and so right now it's a Superfund site and they've been doing groundwater reclamation and monitoring because the groundwater was contaminated. I'm really excited about that because I from environmental science side, I really want to get into mitigating some of those environmental impacts that mining practices have. And so that's a career goal for me and I hope to do that as I move on to this professional role." 

Do you have any advice for future or current students?

"Advice I would give to other environmental science students is just to get out there, get to know the professors, the faculty. I mean, you don’t really know what's out there for you, so networking is really important. I wouldn't have gotten that internship if I hadn't been in the lab and so I think it's really valuable that you make those connections and that you stay in contact with the faculty. There's tons of opportunities out there for environmental science students. And so I think it's really valuable that when you're in college, you take advantage of those opportunities as well as all the other resources that are available on campus. If you ever had the opportunity to do an internship anywhere, just do it. You're going to learn a lot and it's really going to help you like solidify some of the concepts already learned in class, but also get that experience and find out what you like and what you don’t to like."