1.6 Students will be able to apply knowledge of biology to one or more contemporary issues in society.

Being able to understand biology is wonderful, but being able to apply it to real world issues is even more valuable. The most direct application of my knowledge that I have used so far is from my toxicology class. I took perspectives in toxicology and was able to learn about different environmental toxins that are potentially harmful to communities all across the world. I was able to investigate this myself through completing a risk assessment over the course of the semester in a particular area. This area was in Richmond and had evidence of asbestos, volatile organic compounds and even petroleum products. Since this is the site of an open and operating building, it is important to know the risks of being in this area. It was also located very close to a public park, and any runoff could cause these toxins to spread. It was so neat to be able to see that there are public health databases available for this kind of information. However, these are full of jargon and not easy for the general public to understand. Here is a link to my final risk assessment. I think something that has really resonated with me over the last four years is the idea of scientific communication. I love being able to know things but it hurts that not everyone has the same access to information like this. It is not always digestible and can cause misinformation like we have seen throughout this pandemic. I want to help fix this idea in my future career as well. I think that accessible information is vital to solving many contemporary issues today.