Other Things To Know About Me

My faith is the most important part of my life, as I believe all things (including insects) are unified through  Christ Jesus to bring glory to God. While it has not always taken center stage in my life, my faith in Jesus is what sustains me. To make any other claim would be deceitful to God, to you, and myself. While my faith in Jesus should speak many things about me, one thing it does not say is that I have any right to judge others or foster hate towards anyone in my heart (and when I do this is sinful). I may disagree with someone's choices, or who they describe themselves to be, but this does not matter because I was not set to be a judge over all things, so please do not hesitate to call me out for this behavior if you see it happening. If I disagree with you it does not mean I do not love you, nor does it mean I cannot support you, it simply means I disagree with you on something. It is possible (or likely) that my understanding of the topic of disagreement is limited or I am wrong, and I only ask that you be gracious with me and explain where you are coming from if you think this is the case. I say all this not for my own sake, but for the sake of my savior Jesus, for I would gladly run from all this if I did not understand the stupifying love he has shown for me. But instead, I share this with you, so that you may know of an amazing love, presented perfectly by the perfect lover, to such imperfect sinful beings as you and me.

In high school, I joined the Entomological Society of America, where I present regularly. I am also an Eagle Scout and love being outdoors, which is one of the necessities for studying ants. In the summer of 2022, I worked with Discover Life in America as a Biology intern and Updated the taxonomy of the ant collection there. In addition, I have done some identification work for Colorado State University and created a piece of literature that is (hopefully) being used to assist in identifying Colorado Stinging Ants. I also recently attended and graduated from the California Academy of Sciences’ Ant Course, hosted by the Binatang Research Center in Papua New Guinea. My favorite taxonomic group to work with (currently) is Solenopsis ‘thief ants.’

In terms of photography, I have done significant research on macro photography and have tried various photography techniques. In high school, I was a photography student and won various awards during that time, including the same departmental award twice. I continued with photography throughout the following summer during my internship with Discover Life In America, and that summer I also attended Bugshot on a student scholarship. The following academic year I was significantly less active but still won an award in Morehead State’s Inscape journal, where 2 of my images were published. I enjoy photography, and one day hope to travel around the world documenting ants and the regions in which they are found. Read more about my photographic encounters with ants on my blog. 

I believe that every person should take at least a little time to learn something about insects and I advocate for people who are passionate about them to go and teach others about insects. I love brainstorming and coming up with new ideas, and I particularly love using Google Sheets for some reason.