Andrea “Andie” Kolarova, MF-MEM’23, enjoyed studying at the Nicholas School so much, she just had to come back.
As an undergraduate student, Andie became interested in everything from corporate sustainability to marine biology. Early on in her academic career, she joined the Pimm Lab, researching hummingbird feeding behavior and publishing a paper on global habitat corridors. She also became a Rachel Carson Scholar, spending a semester at the Duke Marine Lab and earning Graduation with Distinction with her analysis of stress and survivorship among sooty terns, a species of tropical seabird.
“The best part of my undergraduate experience was the experiential learning,” Andie said. “Through classes, internships, and research, I was able to travel and study in places such as Mexico, Ecuador, Germany, and Bhutan.”
Exciting as her experience was, by the time Andie was graduating in May of 2020, she was struggling to find her niche in the environmental field. Between that, the scarcity of job opportunities, and the COVID-19 pandemic, Andie was forced to reconsider her plans. She ended up discovering AmeriCorps as an entryway into the environmental field, and her journey to forestry began.
Finding a Future in Forestry
As part of an AmeriCorps conservation crew, Andie worked in public lands where she engaged with everything from building trails in the Grand Canyon, to treating invasives in the Colorado wilderness, to collecting seeds in the New River Gorge. The work was especially challenging.
“Work weeks, or ‘hitches’, could last up to eight days in a row,” Andie said. “Work continued whether there was sun, rain, or snow. And ‘housing accommodations’ typically meant sleeping in a tent.”
During this period, there was a particular assignment that caused Andie to emerge from her sleeping bag every day with a smile on her face.
Her crew had been instructed to locate eastern hemlocks, a beautiful dark green coniferous tree, growing inside an ecologically and recreationally important area of the newly dedicated New River Gorge National Park. These trees were experiencing high rates of decline and mortality due to an invasive pest called the woolly adelgid. The assignment was to find these trees, measure them, and then treat them with the appropriate dose of protective pesticide.
“I realized while walking among the trees, exploring the landscape, and observing the intricacies of nature, nothing made me happier,” she said.
Back to the Nicholas School Family
When she expressed her enthusiasm for this kind of work, Andie was repeatedly told she should go back to school and earn a Master of Forestry.
Remembering the warm, collaborative, and inspiring environment at the Nicholas School, Andie applied for and returned to Duke for her advanced degree. Once again, she became incredibly involved with the Nicholas School – especially through the Society of American Foresters and the Alumni Council Fellowship. At the end of her first year as an MF-MEM, Andie was elected co-president of the Duke Chapter of the Society of American Foresters. Together with her co-leader, Andie created and maintained traditions and training opportunities for her forestry community. As an Alumni Council Fellow, Andie also managed the Alumni-Student Mentorship program, making professional connections between current students and alumni.
One of the benefits of the MF-MEM degree program is the opportunity to have two summer internships. The first summer, Andie worked as a forestry intern with Weyerhaeuser in Washington, fulfilling a long-time dream of seeing the towering trees of the Pacific Northwest. This internship also piqued her interest in intensive-management forestry and gave her a foot in the door for post-graduation employment.
She spent the second summer with Duke Forest as the management and operations intern. In between taking continuous forest inventory plots and finishing the decadal recreation survey, Andie was able to complete data collection for her Master’s Project. This project, which focused on quantifying emerald ash borer-induced ash mortality and assessing ash reintroduction strategies in the Duke Forest, tied together many of the skills Andie learned through her coursework at the Nicholas School.
In December, Andie said farewell to Grainger Hall for the second time. She will now be starting off her career as a forester with Weyerhaeuser in Lynchburg, Virginia. In reflecting back on her experience returning to the Nicholas School, she realizes the best part is the people.
“The relationships I made with my cohort, faculty, and staff are the most cherished aspect of my experience,” she said. “My education, internships, and relationships gave me the confidence to start building my dream career in forestry.” And who knows? Andie says that, perhaps years from now, she will be back again for her PhD!
