Alexandra Matsumi Ciećwierz.

Image 1: Depicts me on a large boulder at the peak of Czarny Staw, last summer in Zakopane, Poland. It is one of my favorite trails in Poland. 

  

  Welcome to my first blog post! My name is Alexandra Matsumi Ciećwierz. Currently, I am a rising senior majoring in Environmental Science and Technology with a concentration in Resource Management and a minor in Art History at the University of Maryland, College Park. My goals are to expand my knowledge of environmental science by collecting data at different sites and learning how to conduct research as a team to ultimately empower our community through science education. 

       I will be assisting with documentation of field and production data as well as analyzing the data and developing outreach materials such as reports, presentations, and infographics to communicate our findings to different audiences. I will also be responsible for conducting consumer surveys at local farmers’ markets, and supporting the microgreens project through data management, analysis, and visualization. Overall, I will be supporting the ornamental horticulture team, economics team, and native plant & landscape team. I will be working at the Central Maryland Research Extension Center located in Clarksville. My mentors are Xuan Wei (Urban Farm and Agribusiness Management Extension Specialist), Lisa Kuder (Native Plants & Landscapes Specialist), and Laura Nixon (Extension Specialist in Ornamental IPM & Entomology). 

In my current job placement, my daily responsibilities revolve around helping with various field work projects, creating user surveys, and inputting that data into websites and spreadsheets. This work aligns directly with UME’s mission of using data-driven research to solve real-world problems. By building surveys and organizing the data collected from the field, I am helping create the very tools UME uses to measure its community impact and improve its outreach programs. 

With Laura, I have learnt about growing degree days and how these specific numbers are meant to represent a particular insect species that would be active. Xuan has talked with me about the importance of how a question is formed and why it's important, allowing the reporters to get the answers we want and the users to make it as easy as possible. Lisa has shown me the importance of understanding between invasive and native plants and having studies allow scientists and the public to grow in helping to address problems faced by gardeners and land managers.  

Having these mentors guide me through these projects has taught me the importance of data integrity and has shown me how to approach field work with an analytical mindset. Looking ahead, this wonderful opportunity fits perfectly into my future career goals. It has provided me with transferable skills in database management, survey design, and project coordination that are highly valuable in almost any professional field. With the help of my mentors, they have given me a solid foundation in fieldwork and data management, making me feel much more confident and prepared for my future career. 

Image 2: Alongside Holly (another intern in the Clarksville location) doing tree scaling and tapping in Rockville in order to collect data for the Crape Myrtle Bark Scale project on 5/27/26. The project involves looking at the phenology of the scale to see when they are most actively moving to estimate the best point of applying pesticides. 

Image 3: In the Clarksville Extension Center offices on 5/29/26, I was assisting Lisa, Emily, & Dan in their new project, involving the use of assertive natives to outcompete Japanese siltgrass. This required us to measure and set up the landscape along with identifying which plants are located within each quadrat.