(From left) Andrea Clark, Addison Wright, Owen McDonald, Ari Puentes
By Emma Castleberry
The McCullough Fellowship at UNC Asheville supports students in gaining practical skills through applied research projects in Western North Carolina in the areas of land use and conservation, sustainable agriculture, and environmental resiliency. The program was established in 2015 by Leslie Casse and her parents, Shirley Anne and Charlie McCullough. The university named the fellowship in honor of her father for his service to Asheville as a physician, volunteer and environmentalist. “We wanted students to be able to obtain professional experience in what is a very big part of Asheville’s economy while enabling them to bring these values and mindset into the work they do in college and beyond,” Casse says.
The two-step selection process for the fellowship is highly competitive. “This is an amazing opportunity for undergraduate students. They learn academic and professional skills that usually they are not gaining until graduate school,” says Alison Ormsby, director of the McCullough Institute.
This year, four fellows have worked with a faculty advisor and a representative from a community partner organization to develop an applied research project. Andrea Carver is an international studies major slated to graduate in 2023 with a double minor in legal studies and human rights, as well as a certificate in sustainability. Carver’s fellowship project, “Bird Conservation through Lights Out Asheville,” will work to implement the Audubon Society’s “Lights Out” program locally in an effort to protect migratory birds. “Small behavioral changes such as simply turning lights off from 11 p.m. until 6 a.m. have such a positive impact on our natural environment,” says Carver. “The avian or bird population aren’t the only beneficiaries from this simple action, but humans benefit as well.”
Addison Wright, a double major in mass communication and political science, is working with the Food Justice Planning Initiative to conduct research and analysis on communication around food work in Western North Carolina. As part of her project, “Applying Theories of Communication to Food Justice in Western NC,” she helped lead a social event for far west farmers with the Collaborative Agriculture Network (CAN). “From this research, I have found a passion for community-partnered research and reporting—collaborating to create a platform for community members to tell their own stories,” she says.
Fellow Owen McDonald is graduating in 2024 with a degree in mechatronics engineering. For his fellowship project, “EV Planning: Charger Where?,” he is working with Land of Sky to create an algorithm for optimizing the locations of electric vehicle charging infrastructure, which will in turn help identify what cities are well-equipped for the EV shift. “Fellowships like the McCullough Fellowship play a crucial role in connecting students with staff and a community organization in need of research,” he says.
Biology major Ari Puentes is conducting a project titled “Using Citizen Science to Study the Impact of Prescribed Fires on Fungi in DuPont State Recreational Forest, NC.” Puentes’ study found that recently burned areas “had higher diversity and more species of mycorrhizal fungi—the fungi that form mutualistic symbioses with trees—than unburned areas.” The fellowship has solidified Puentes’ love for research and made him confident about his decision to pursue graduate school. “I truly feel like this fellowship set me up with the materials required to develop and succeed,” he says.
To learn more, visit McCullough.UNCA.edu.
