VM: Hello, everyone. My name is Viridis Miranda. I’m a science communication intern at EarthScope Consortium, and I’m interviewing Conner Knorr. Hello Conner, how are you today? 

CK: Good. How are you doing? 

VM: Good, and awesome interviewing you. So, Conner, could you tell us a little bit about your internship position?

CK: Yeah, so I’m the Project Management intern for the summer, so I’ve been helping out under Sarah Deutsch and her whole PMO [Project Management Office] team.

VM: Awesome. And what do you most like about it?

CK: I really enjoy seeing the more organizational side of science, because I’m a geology student at the University of Houston, so I’m definitely used to more of the lab, like science setting. But I also really enjoy checklists, organizing, spreadsheets, stuff like that, so it’s really nice to see kind of the opposite side, more of like the business side of the science. Because you still use a lot of it from talking to all these different people, and it’s really useful to know some of the science when you’re talking to people. But yeah, just kind of more that organizational side and just a different side of science that I haven’t really seen before.

VM: Awesome. And how do you feel it translates the work that you do from your internship towards your geoscience degree?

CK: Yeah, so I think it really has helped me just learn more skills, even that I can just use in my everyday life, and also my future skills, just with planning out different things that are going on, or different tasks. I’m sure I’ll definitely still use a lot of the tools that I’m using now, because I think over the summer, it was definitely a rough start a little bit, trying to start out using some of the tools, but I think now, honestly, it can be really helpful, even just in my schooling and stuff like that. Make sure I’m on time and on track. Like, some of the things are spreadsheets, but they even have more uses, which I think will be super helpful in the future, which is organizing, keeping track of everything.

VM: So what do you most like about it?

CK: I really do like that I get to talk to a lot of people whenever I’m doing it. Because a lot of times you have to talk to people to get their information about things–because I was helping out with like resource allocation sometimes–so we would have to talk to people, ask how much work and what percentage they do to one project versus another, and just kind of helping out generally with tracking their projects and stuff like that. So it’s really nice just to talk to people in the science community. And I’m very much just a people person, like I could very much talk for a while to a lot of people. So it’s really nice just interacting with everyone, and the team that I’ve been working with has been so amazing and so great. That’s definitely a big plus to it. 

VM: That’s definitely awesome that you get the people aspect inside of project management, aside from managing your task and organization as well. And I think that’s really important for us students to be on track with that.

CK: Yeah, especially in remote work, too. 

VM:  Oh yeah, especially remote work. That’s most important. Remote work, you need to be like, on top of a lot of things.

VM: Are you currently an undergrad or a graduate student?

CK: I’m currently an undergrad student.

VM: Awesome. Any plans for grad school after this? 

CK: I think possibly? I think, oh, honestly, I have to see, once I’m graduating. I really do want to get at least a Masters in the future, but I don’t know if I’ll quite do that right after I graduate. Maybe take a few years in the field and whatnot, you know, build up that bank account a little bit, so we’ll see. Yeah, but I definitely would like to in the future, even if I don’t go right after.

VM: Awesome. And everyone’s path is very different. You could either go into the workforce and have experience before doing grad school, or either take a gap year and then you do grad school, or either take a break and then you go to work and then you study. So it’s all in your field, there is no right or wrong answer. And project management is such a very unique skill to have, because it makes you a better person in how to manage large projects. So I want to ask you, as a project manager, what would be the most hands-on task that you were given?

CK: A lot of the stuff I do, I do kind of work on my own. And it’s more like working on dashboards, and I’ve been working on integration and whatnot, but I definitely think the most hands-on, working with people has probably been the resource management and talking to the people and getting down the resource allocation and stuff like that. I definitely think that would be the most hands-on. You know, a lot of my other stuff that I’ve been working on is mostly like, sometimes in the background and just kind of on my own.

VM: Awesome. And also, I would like to ask you, what other hobbies and extracurriculars do you have, aside from all the fun things that you’re doing at the internship?

CK: So I’m very much an outdoorsy person. I love to be outside. I love hiking, or anything along those lines. I also like to crochet a lot. So I’m always working on some new little project. I’m working on a sweater right now.

VM: Oh, that’s amazing. Do you have any cool hikes or trails that you could recommend?

CK: It depends where you’re going. There’s a bunch of really good ones in West Virginia, that’s where I’m at right now, at my dad’s house. There are honestly, so many amazing ones, and especially now that New River Gorge actually just became a national park, they were just a state park before, they have a bunch of really good trails. I honestly don’t really remember the names of a lot of them, I just kind of know where they are. But definitely, go check that out, that’s always amazing. And literally anything in the park is always really good.

VM: That is definitely really cool. I like the outdoors too. It’s sort of my grounding technique for a stressful day, and I could just be in contact with nature the full day.

CK: Yeah, it really is. Not that I don’t like rotting on my phone sometimes, but it does really, I think, help just to be outside and just kind of listen.

VM: I would definitely agree. And what advice would you give high school students aspiring for a geoscience or any STEM-related field?

CK: Oh, that’s a really good question. I would definitely say, reach out and use a lot of the resources and people that are around you. Because I think getting advice from your professors or your teachers, or anyone sort of in that field, is always super, super useful. And there’s a lot of stuff that you don’t really know, or you don’t even know to ask because you’re not really involved with it. Because I’ve just recently gone into the geology field. I originally wanted to do marine biology, and then I got into U of H [University of Houston] for environmental science, and then through that, I found out about geology. So I’m still very much new to the field, and I think just talking to the people that are already in that field has helped me a lot, and made me realize a lot of the opportunities and just everything.

VM: Also, geoscience is a very interdisciplinary field, so if you want to combine it with a marine biology aspect, you can definitely do that, or take coursework in your special interest classes, like oceanography, and have a feel of that. And also, I live in Puerto Rico, so if you would like to visit nice coral reef structures, I have a whole bunch of places to recommend.

CK: Oh, that’s awesome. I would love to go to Puerto Rico. That’s definitely always been on my little bucket list.

VM: You will enjoy it because we have a whole vast ecosystem, and coral reef structures in the southern west of Puerto Rico, at the western and northern part of the island, and in the south also.

CK: Hopefully I go soon. One of my friends is from Puerto Rico, so she visits quite often, and I’ve been talking about wanting to go one summer with her, whenever she visits. So we’ll see you hopefully.

VM: Oh, that’s so awesome. And Conner, it is so awesome interviewing you. And I wish you the very best in this internship, and may you rock it at project management.

CK: Thank you, you too.