Photo: Graduate student Sharon Dorsey carries her spotting scope and other equipment while searching for plovers on Fire Island, New York.
One hundred years have passed since the first female undergraduates enrolled in Virginia Tech. To mark the occasion, the university is commemorating this anniversary throughout 2022. The College of Natural Resources and Environment is celebrating by sharing the stories of three women in the college — a student, a professor, and an alumna — who are finding their paths and leading the way for others in their fields.Current student Sharon Dorsey: plover protector and social media influencer
On a barrier island off the coast of Long Island, Sharon Dorsey holds four piping plover chicks in her hand. Using her camera phone, the Baltimore native takes a short video, which she will upload to social media.
For Dorsey, the video served two purposes. First, it provided a daily record of the conservation field research she conducted monitoring the piping plover population on Fire Island this past summer with the Virginia Tech Shorebird Program.