Maggie Landwer, ’25, grew up on the Iron Range in Gilbert, Minnesota, and could have gone to a number of colleges nearby. But being recruited to run track and the promise of venturing further from home ultimately brought her to the University of Minnesota Morris, where she took part in study abroad opportunities in three countries: Latvia, Germany, and Peru.

The most recent was a summer research project with Morton Gneiss Endowed Professor Michael Zavada, who was invited through the Fulbright Specialist Program to the Universidad Nacional del Altiplano de Puno (UNA).

Along with undergraduate and graduate students from UNA, Landwer was one of three University of Minnesota Morris students who participated in the project, spending six weeks in the Puno region of Peru.

“The research was focused on water quality in the inner Puno Bay, where it’s very contaminated with E. coli and coliform,” she says. “We also did a heavy metal analysis where we worked with a government agency to analyze fish from Lake Titicaca.” Lake Titicaca is the highest navigable lake in the world.

Landwer, who received support for her travels as a Prairie Scholar and from the UMM’s Sustainable “Green” Fund, collected and analyzed data.

“When we started, we spent about five to six hours each day going around the Lake Titicaca bay, collecting samples,” she says. “After that, we were focused on getting all of that data into spreadsheets and creating graphs and charts and rough GPS locations of the areas that we visited.”

Landwer was very gratified by the hands-on experience and felt that her time in Peru was her best study abroad program so far. “This whole [research] experience in itself led me to think this is what I want to do.”

An environmental science major, Landwer is considering her options after graduation. “I’m starting to think of my own research projects that I can conduct and where I want to go after I graduate. That’s a little bit scary. I don't know what I’m going to do, but … I’ve left my mind open to the possibilities.”

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