We love it when our alumni tell us what they’ve been up to. DA Class of 2011 graduate Frank Harris recently updated us on his post-DA activities. Spoiler alert: he’s currently a PhD candidate!

 

After DA High School graduation, Frank attended college and did a stint in law enforcement. He then pursued additional studies at Colorado State University in Fort Collins where he discovered he is an excellent philosopher and scientist.

His education has included:

— 5 years in school completing two degrees: Philosophy and Forest Biology

— 2 minors: Plant pathology and Botany

— 2 academic publications

— 6 school clubs at Colorado State University including:

   Global Awareness and International Affairs

   Dead Poets Society (which he ran with his now wife)
   Tri-Beta Biological Honor Society
   Xi Sigma Pi – international honor society for students in natural resource fields

   Society of American Foresters
   Philosophy Club

— 3 research trips abroad

— 1 “awesome” job in the CSU Stewart Lab in the College of Agricultural Sciences

 After graduating from CSU, Frank moved to Lund, Sweden, to study how climate change affects the microbiome and carbon/nitrogen cycling in subarctic birch soils near Abisko, Sweden. While there…

—He was part of the Nordic Master in Environmental Changes at Higher Latitudes (EnCHiL) which provides a two-year science education at the highest international level and a practical experience within the Arctic region.

— He published a thesis,  “Legacy effects of temperature alterations on microbial resistance and resilience to drying and rewetting.”

— He spent one year at The Rousk Lab at Lund University.

— Frank is a PhD candidate at Wageningen University and Research in the Netherlands. His field of study is soil biology and microbial ecology in intercropping agroecosystems.

He has this to say about his education experience at DA: “I think seeing one’s differences as a strength is crucial. Working with high-level academics, nearly everyone here has a highly customized, optimized, and unique learning strategy. Knowing how one learns, and understanding the unique perspective that gives you, is perhaps the most important lesson I learned at Denver Academy.” 

Nice job, Mustang!