Albion volleyball middle hitter Stephanie Thurner hopes to become a marine biologist in the future, and she is taking charge of the path to reach that goal this summer.

Now at the midpoint of her collegiate career, Thurner is being exposed to field research for the first time by developing a study of parental provisioning and post-fledgling behavior of house wrens for her project sponsored by the Foundation for Undergraduate Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity.

A biology and mathematics major from Caledonia on the west side of Michigan, Thurner and her research partner, Hart Davis, have placed white, brown or silver colored buttons resembling eggs in the nest boxes of wrens living in the college's Whitehouse Nature Center.

Click here to read more about Stephanie Thurner.

(Photo credit: Lowell McGinnis)