Breaking news!

Wow, my life has been SUCH a whirlwind this past month. I have returned to the United States and after spending a week at home in Herndon (+ a couple of amazing days with my sister and her husband and their NEW BABY in Baltimore), I headed down to Williamsburg for school which started Wednesday. I already feel so insanely busy and I've only had two days of classes! But I really like my classes and profs so I think it will be good. I will still try to update the blog occasionally (bc of course I'll still be blog-stalking all of you) but probably pretty rarely. I am super determined to pull up my GPA a bit and do awesome this semester! But anyways, back to the point of this post...I was in the news, haha! The local paper did a little feature on my internship this summer! Here is a copy below:

Student Studies Wildlife Crimes in India

Herndon resident Molly Neel had been back from India for almost a week and she still had red threads tied around her wrists. The strings are traditionally tied on the wrists of those who have visited a Hindu temple, she said, and she had no plans of removing them. "I'll probably keep it on for a good long while," she said, "until it falls off."

The red threads are just one reminder of the two months Neel spent at the Wildlife Institute of India in Dehradun, India. While there, she said, she researched the trading of endangered species and helped create a large database of wildlife crimes, such as the selling of tiger skin and ivory. "It's really exciting to think that college students could have an impact on helping save endangered species," said Neel, who is a senior at the College of William and Mary.

Neel said she not only learned a lot about wildlife crimes while she was in India, but also learned to adapt to almost any situation. She said the bathrooms in the student dorms where she stayed had no running water, so she took "bucket baths" with hot water. After a few weeks, she said, she hardly missed her traditional showers. She also had to become accustomed to the presence of monkeys, everywhere. She said it was a novelty at first to see monkeys around campus, but they quickly become an irritation after they stole food from her bedroom. "They are a nuisance," she said. "You've got to be careful."

Neel had the opportunity to explore other parts of India besides Dehradun. She said she traveled to many cities in Northern India, including Delhi, Jaipur, and Agra, and she also visited holy cities on the Ganges River. She also took a two-week solo trip to Nepal after completing her work in India. In Nepal, she went on a trek in the Himalayas and she said the hike was "very rejuvenating" after working at a computer all summer.

Though she recently returned from her trip, Neel is already working on her next assignment: a proposal to create a partnership between William and Mary and the United Nations University, which is already working on creating a wildlife enforcement monitoring system. Neel said she had an "incredible experience" in India and she would like to "enable other students the opportunity to work toward an issue they care about."

Neel said she is already dreaming of her next adventure abroad. She said the research position was her first exposure to work within the field of environmental policy and she is now interested in pursuing a career in environmental consulting and would like to work in China, Taiwan or India. "Now is the time to do it, while I'm young," she said.


Okay now I have to get to bed. One last day of my first week of classes!