Hampshire College has a unique program of study
	   in which majors are designed entirely by the students.
	   In the fourth year of study, the previous three years
	   are cumulated into a "Division III", or senior thesis
	   project. They are usually thesis type papers, but in 
	   the visual arts can be a collection of works or a 
	   video.
		   My division III is in the Natural Sciences, and my
	   committee consists of Drs. Charlene D'Avanzo and Brian
	   Schultz.  For the past three years my studies have focused
	   on aquatic ecology.  My thesis project has turned into
	   a extensive study of freshwater mussels in New England.
		   This first semester of my Division III has been spent
	   at IES, or the Institute of Ecosystem Studies. There I am
	   working with Dr. David Strayer on the endangered Dwarf Wedge
	   Mussel, or Alasmidonta heterodon.  This species has always
	   been rare, but it's numbers have dwindled so that in 1986
	   a motion was made to have it added to the Endangered Species 
	   List.  My project aims to find some of the reasons for the
	   limited numbers of extant populations, or to find the percent
	   population persistence of this species in New England.