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Jordan Hemmerly

3x

Finalist

2x

Winner

General information

Religion
Prefer Not To Answer

Hobbies & Interests

  • STEM
  • Gardening
  • Sustainability
  • Ceramics And Pottery
  • Rock Climbing
  • Movies And Film
  • Exploring Nature And Being Outside
  • Board Games And Puzzles
  • Coffee

Reading

  • Academic
  • Adventure
  • Art
  • Biography
  • Design
  • Environment
  • How-To
  • Mystery
  • Social Issues
  • True Story
  • Science‎
  • Anthropology
  • History
  • Speculative Fiction
  • Reference

I read books daily.

Bio

I'm Jordan Hemmerly, a current undergraduate at University of Hawai’i. I am the only African American female in my workplace and academic cohort. I am also the first member of both my biological and adoptive family to attend college in pursuit of a Bachelor's degree. I have always known I wanted to move toward the fields of engineering, mathematics, and communication in a creative fashion while also staying conscious of the global environment with particular emphasis in coastal preservation and resources. I work as a research assistant in several capacities. At UH's Mānoa Institute of Marine Biology campus I research in the Coral Resilience Laboratory with heavy emphasis on genomic analysis and statistical processing. I often swim several miles in a day, and work tirelessly to ensure that genetically resilient coral are spawning. At the UH Hilo campus, I work in the Multiscale Environmental Graphical Analysis (MEGA) Laboratory where I produce and annotate 3D coral reef maps of sites within Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument. In addition to those jobs, I voluntarily produce one publishable article per week for the UH Hilo Chancellor’s Affairs Blog. Seasonally, I work as a research assistant with Colorado State University’s Department of Journalism and Media, to bring multiple organizations and agencies together to collect data about tourist’s interactions with wildlife. My hope is that by engaging in science publicly and sharing these pieces of myself that others will become interested, or even just feel represented in their interests.

Education

University of Hawaii at Hilo

Bachelor's degree program

2019 – 2022

Majors:
  • Marine Sciences
Minors:
  • Biological/Biosystems Engineering
  • Computer Science

South Mountain Community College

Associate's degree program

2016 – 2018

Majors:
  • Social Psychology

South Mountain Community College

Associate's degree program

2016 – 2018

Majors:
  • Applied Mathematics, General

Miscellaneous

Medical school interest:
No

Career

  • Field & Laboratory Assistant

    Marine Science · Marine Science Dept. at UH Hilo - Lab & field assistance including specimen collection

    Jan 2019 – Jan 2020

  • Research Assistant

    Coral Reef Research · MEGA Lab - National Science Foundation - National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - Coral Reef Mapping & Quantification

    Jan 2020 – Present

  • Seasonal Research Assistant

    Social Science Research · University of Colorado - Dept. of Media & Journalism - Human Wildlife Interactions Lab - Coordination of 40+ field volunteers, tourist groups, and field trip groups as a data collection site lead

    Jan 2021 – Present

  • Research Assistant

    Biotechnology · Coral Resilience Lab at Hawai'i Institute of Marine Biology

    Jan 2022 – Present

  • PR & Communications Intern

    Scientific Communications & PR · UH Hilo Office of the Chancellor - Regular production of PR articles for the Chancellor's personal blog

    Jan 2021 – Present

  • Disability Resources & Services - Primary Office Coordinator

    Higher Education · South Mountain Community College - Oversight of all highly confidential administrative and clerical functions

    Jan 2016 – Jan 2018

Miscellaneous

Dream career field:
Marine/Maritime Industry, Communications, Engineering
Has nursing license:
No

Future Interests

  • Advocacy
  • Politics
  • Volunteering
  • Philanthropy
  • Entrepreneurship
Sloane Stephens Doc & Glo Scholarship
Winner
I swim above coral reefs, collecting photography as I go, and use those photos to produce GIS-annotated 3D maps that are accurate to the centimeter, printable, and compatible with artificial intelligence/machine learning tools. I gather 2D photos from GoPro or DSLR cameras while swimming in a 'Z' shape to make sure each photo overlaps about 70% of the same area as the last. Once I have all these photos I return to the lab and use software to stitch all the pictures into one massive, detailed, 3D map with each characteristic of the ocean-floor measured and labeled. I do this because the degradation of coral reefs and rise of sea level, at this point, is historically documentable. This is a great misfortune to societal advancement in a variety of biological and chemical sciences, and a danger to low-lying communities across the globe. Coastal communities and island nations deserve representation of their critical issues because sea level rise caused by climate change will impact them first. My desire is to focus on creation and implementation of products or systems designed to ease the workload of computing total reef resilience over a long-term timeframe as to contribute to sustainable community planning initiatives and oceanic science. My hope is that by engaging in science publicly and sharing these pieces of myself that others will become interested, or even just feel represented. The quality I value most in myself is my aspiration to continue redefining the concept of 'the box' people feel they're supposed to fit into because for me, the challenge of doing so has been terrifying and the most rewarding chase of my life. I fail at various things all the time. It is true that some times have been more impactful than others, and that I could be writing a very specific sentiment about failure as growth and racism etc. for this paragraph, but I don't think that deep personal approach will make the next point as clear as I'd like it to be: The truth is, when you're combining science and art inspired by community voices, every single step of the way is an experiment that might fail. Having that kind of constant pressure associated with my pursuit fires up my passion, reminds me why I'm committed, quiets any sadness, and fuels the daily grind. Debt, long nights, tropical storms, cold waters, and failed steps along the way, only help to keep me refining what I'm supposed to be so that I can help everyone be seen as someone. I'm Jordan Hemmerly, a current undergraduate at University of Hawaii Hilo. I work in coral reef research with the University of Hawaii at Hilo's Research Corporation's Multiscale Environmental Graphical Analysis (MEGA) Lab and also as a scientific communications correspondent for the Office of the Chancellor. I am the first member of both my biological and adoptive family to attend college in pursuit of a Bachelor's degree. I am the only African American female in my workplace and cohort. I have always known I wanted to move toward engineering, art, and communication while also staying conscious of my personal interest in conservation. Earth science and communications are amongst the finest of arts; I couldn't help but try to bring everything together at once. I regularly find myself surprised and dazzled by the ways that new technologies, artistic expression, and upgraded designs offer the possibility to connect people with information. I appreciate your time and sincerely hope to be considered so that I may continue to expand my knowledge base and connect with mentors and communities while working toward innovating marine conservation.
Markforged Distinguished Women Engineers Grant
Winner
I have always known I wanted to move toward the fields of engineering and math while also staying conscious of my personal interest in the marine environment with particular emphasis on coral reef ecology. Coral has unique biological structures, chemical signatures that contribute to modern medicine, and massive pertinentence to the stability of all global productivity despite evolving anthropogenic factors. This profound interest has guided me to the Big Island of Hawaii. I strongly considered whether or not it was logical to move onto an isolated volcano thousands of miles into the middle of the Pacific Ocean in the pursuit of a higher education, a better understanding of the global ocean’s reef products, and their potential benefit to human life. I am now extremely proud to share I believe I have found a platform within which I am able to express and grow all of my interests equally. The degradation of coral reefs, at this point, is historically documentable. This is a great misfortune to societal advancement in a variety of biological and chemical sciences at bare minimum. My desire is to focus on creation and implementation of products or systems designed to ease the workload of computing total reef resilience over a long-term timeframe. I‎ resolutely aspire to expand my knowledge of marine engineering, bioinformatic processes, and the use of 3D mapping/printing because I am certain that these technologies offer profoundly promising new ways to connect people with information. I regularly find myself positively mystified by the absolutely infinite array of ability that new technologies and upgraded designs offer those in pursuit of questions that can be answered scientifically. I recently completed the ‘Ike Wai Data Science Summer Scholar internship program. I am currently working with University of Hawaii at Hilo's Multi-scale Environmental Graphical Analysis (MEGA) laboratory as an undergraduate research assistant where I conduct tasks that vary across the disciplines of marine engineering, data analysis, and marine biology. I routinely apply 3D photogrammetry (ArcMap, ArcGIS, etc.) technology to create, analyze, and quantify characteristics of high resolution habitat reconstructions throughout the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument. I have been trained in analytical geospatial methodological practices and demography quantification procedures in collaboration with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) alongside the Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC). I am funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). I regularly use statistical analysis, regression modeling, and 3D multivariate analyses in various coding languages (R, Python, HTML, etc.) to predict and present information about coral resilience and ecosystem functionality. I am absolutely enthralled to currently be working toward a deeper understanding of Bayesian statistical approaches in the hopes of expanding my personal skills and improving the immediate readability of our time-series visualizations. My annotations and visualizations have been selected to assist in machine learning exploration and have been featured as idyllic output examples. I aspire to work more directly with machine learning in the near future with the hopes of gaining a deeper understanding of how my annotations are being used to automate the process of mapping and information gathering. In the long term I hope to make a substantial contribution to international science center’s showcases by modernizing the overall process of scientific research from data collection to publication and revolutionizing the presentation of information. This experience has fully changed my life in ways I am so grateful for it becomes difficult to express without emotional involvement. I appreciate your time and sincerely hope to be considered for this scholarship so that I may continue to expand my knowledge base, connect with professionals/mentors, and work toward innovating oceanic technologies.
Jordan Hemmerly Student Profile | Bold.org