{"id":491,"date":"2019-05-08T16:26:02","date_gmt":"2019-05-08T21:26:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wp.towson.edu\/ajwilliams\/?p=491"},"modified":"2026-03-19T08:48:34","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T12:48:34","slug":"lote-lab-member-kenna-leonzo-highlighted-on-tu-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/people.clas.ufl.edu\/amywilliams1\/lote-lab-member-kenna-leonzo-highlighted-on-tu-news\/","title":{"rendered":"LotE Lab member Kenna Leonzo highlighted on TU News"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n
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See the full article here<\/span><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Megan Bradshaw on May 5, 2019<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Visiting TU\u2019s Glen put Kenna Leonzo \u201919 on a path to an environmental science career<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Kenna
Senior Kenna Leonzo takes a water sample from the Glen stream.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Graduating senior Kenna Leonzo knew she wanted to come to Towson University the moment she stepped into The Glen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

The Fort Washington, Maryland, native had come to visit her brother Javier Leonzo \u201915, and he showed her around TU\u2019s 329-acre campus. The 10 wooded acres in the center\u00a0<\/em>seemed \u201chuge\u201d to her and appealed to her love of nature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Learn more about The Glen<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cJust walking into The Glen\u2026it was green and vibrant. There were students studying there. It looked like somewhere I wanted to be. There was such good energy,\u201d Leonzo recalls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

When she arrived at TU, she declared a major in film, pondering a future in nature documentaries. A spin through the Involvement Fair introduced her to the Student Environmental Organization\u2014she is now the vice president\u2014and convinced her to switch her major to environmental science.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Former TU professor Amy Williams\u2019 physical geology class settled her on a major in geology.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Kenna<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cFrom the first class, I was amazed,\u201d remembers Leonzo. \u201cI sat in the front, probably with my mouth hanging open. There was a lab where I got to do hands-on work; I loved taking water samples. Dr. Williams noticed how much I loved the class and invited me into her lab at the end of the semester.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Leonzo credits her mentor relationship with Williams\u00a0with offering her opportunities to learn practical skills and giving her a career direction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cDr. Williams is amazing. She was available to talk to me and really showed me my passion for geology,\u201d she says. \u201cHer class was terrific. I took all her other classes and even sat in on a few of her geobiology classes. She truly, truly cares for her students.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

A Dean\u2019s List student, Leonzo\u00a0conducted water chemistry quality research on local streams that flow into Lake Roland\u2014including The Glen\u2019s stream\u2014to find the overall water chemistry quality and impact that TU has on certain waterways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Learn about undergraduate research opportunities in Fisher College<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

She presented her research findings at the American Geophysical Union in Washington, D.C., in December 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cBeing an undergraduate presenter was a huge honor,\u201d Leonzo says. \u201cMost of the other presenters were well-known scientists or graduate and postgraduate\u00a0students. It was great to walk around and meet people in the field.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Leonzo\u00a0also participated in the Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program, interning with the United States Forest Service and serving as a field manager for Environment Maryland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Her hard work\u00a0paid off: Leonzo will leave TU with a job as an industrial hygienist technician for Global Consulting, Inc., where she\u2019ll work on multiple environmental hazardous waste projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

The soon-to-be alumna has some advice for fellow science majors still working their way to graduation: find a mentor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cReaching out to faculty mentors is the best thing you can do,\u201d she stresses. \u201cThey want to hear about your interest and help you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\r\n\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t<\/div>\r\n<\/section>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Fort Washington, Maryland, native had come to visit her brother Javier Leonzo \u201915, and he showed her around TU\u2019s 329-acre campus. The 10 wooded acres in the center\u00a0seemed \u201chuge\u201d to her and appealed to her love of nature.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":999,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"featured_post":"off","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.clas.ufl.edu\/amywilliams1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.clas.ufl.edu\/amywilliams1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.clas.ufl.edu\/amywilliams1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.clas.ufl.edu\/amywilliams1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/999"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.clas.ufl.edu\/amywilliams1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=491"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/people.clas.ufl.edu\/amywilliams1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":920,"href":"https:\/\/people.clas.ufl.edu\/amywilliams1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491\/revisions\/920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.clas.ufl.edu\/amywilliams1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.clas.ufl.edu\/amywilliams1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.clas.ufl.edu\/amywilliams1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}