2022 CHANCE Fellows, Samar Latefa and Jonathan Perez at the Penn State 2023 Undergraduate Exhibition
Last summer, 2022 CHANCE Fellows, Samar Latefa and Jonathan Perez, joined the CHANCE Romania contingent of twenty-four students from Penn State University and the University of Bucharest to carry-out a research project that related to water pollution in the Danube delta of Romania. These students were placed into smaller binational groups under the mentorship of top scientists to design, implement, analyze, and then communicate their findings and advocate for change at an international forum, where stakeholders from many facets of the world were present. Importantly, the Danube River and its delta, are now threatened, particularly by the presence of microplastics, pesticides, fertilizers, industrial waste, and habitat destruction.
Since returning to the United States, Samar and Jonathan have been working diligently to further communicate their group's research findings and to advocate for local and national Romanian and international European Union-based policy changes as well as to educate the population at large. Their project, entitled, Aquatic Health of the Danube Basin: Assessment of Select Areas within the Brăila Islands, Romania, examined the saprobic index of phytoplankton and revealed that the more heavily human impacted sites exhibited decreased water quality and less biodiversity.
KUDOs to Samar and Jonathan for communicating science and advocating for change to meet United Nation Sustainability Goal #6: Clean Water and Sanitation. CHANCE is proud to share that in doing so, they been awarded top prizes at the following 2023 events:
Penn State Lehigh Valley Undergraduate Research Symposium (April 6th; 1st Place, STEM category)
Penn State Regional Undergraduate Research Symposium (April 22nd; 2nd Place, Biological Sciences and Health Category)
Penn State Undergraduate Exhibition (April 12th; 2nd Place Health, and Life Sciences Category).
