Cullman Scholarship Reaffirms a Love of Biology

The Western New York native spent three weeks this past summer studying the impact of winter ticks on the region’s bull-moose population and helped extract DNA samples from a colony of black terns, among other activities.

Considered among the Academy’s highest honors, the Cullman Scholarship Program was established in 1983 with a gift from Hugh Cullman ’42 and supports students in off-campus study opportunities. In 2024, Sarah and seven additional students were awarded scholarships to pursue areas of study of their choosing that develop leadership skills, global and environmental awareness, and service to others.

“For me, my Cullman experience was absolutely incredible and really helped solidify that I want to study biology in college,” said Sarah, a member of Kimball Union Academy’s cross-country team, farm team, and the KUA Fire Brigade. “KUA has been amazing. I’ve really been able to take advantage of so many opportunities here. I never would have been able to do this at a different school.”

Sarah said her internship with the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife (DIFW) featured three key components in lab work, camera tagging, and field work. But unsurprisingly it was the field work she most enjoyed due to its hands-on nature.

Much of this work took place on Penobscot Nation Tribal Land, where Sarah retrieved memory cards from strategically positioned field cameras and maintained the sites by removing growth. Though it was an afternoon spent on a freshwater marsh helping extract DNA samples from black terns while balancing a canoe that Sarah said she won’t soon forget.

“It was so much fun,” she said of her experience handling the birds. “It was kind of a surprise thing that just sort of worked out. Some of the biologists will do arial surveys in helicopters during the winter, and the thought was that maybe I’d be able to get up in one but that didn’t end up working out. And so, to spend a day actually on the marsh with the terns, it was just amazing.”

Sarah’s lab work was split between the University of Maine and the DIFW’s Bangor office and afforded her the opportunity to shadow biologists as they conducted DNA sequencing, photographed winter ticks, and used an old saw to age moose canines through cementation. And through camera tagging, Sarah saw firsthand the impact winter ticks have on a moose’s body weight, as well as how the animals’ efforts to remove ticks by scratching against trees can result in catastrophic shedding that leave them vulnerable to the cold.

During her downtime, Sarah made sure to see as much of Maine’s natural beauty as possible, visiting parts of the state’s coastline, the 616-acre Orono Bog, and Acadia National Park. But perhaps the most memorable part of her internship, she said, were the three bull moose she saw up close and personal — from a safe distance.

“It’s super rare,” Sarah said of the moose sightings, adding that she had previously only seen one in person. “We got so lucky!”