Accolades:

• Weitzel Scholar, Nitze Scholar
• SMCM Academic Achievement Scholarship Recipient

About Becky

Name:
Emily Rebecca ("Becky") Cramer, Class of 2005

I just read:
Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy

My favorite CD:
Tracy Chapman Telling Stories

A Class everyone should take at St. Mary's:
Tropical Marine Biology

Favorite spot on campus:
the arbor in the Garden of Remembrance

Becky Cramer didn't want to be a biology major when she first came to St. Mary's. Her sister, a senior at the College, already was majoring in it. But, when you get excited about moss growing on a wall, you realize you may need to change your mind.

"It wasn't until halfway through my freshman year that I was convinced I should do biology," said Becky. "I got excited showing my mother the sporophyte generation of some moss growing on a wall. If I could get excited about alternation of generations (the life cycle of plants), what else was I to do? Since then, I have turned into one of the biggest biology dorks ever -- and I say that with pride."

Now a senior biology major and member of the Phi Beta Kappa honor society, Becky has taken her love of the outdoors and biology and poured it into research for her St. Mary's Project (SMP) on how the vocal performance levels of red-winged blackbirds affects territorial behavior in the males. Her work has garnered praise from her mentor, J. Jordan Price of the biology department, and her findings are in the process of being submitted to the scientific journal Animal Behavior, with Becky as first author, and, possibly, to Maryland Birdlife, a magazine published by the Maryland Ornithological Society.

It was during the summer of 2003 as a participant in the Weitzel Summer Research Program that Becky began her work on red-winged blackbirds. This program enables talented students to work on a self-defined research project alongside a faculty mentor.

When saw this research from the summer program blossoming into a potential SMP, Becky sought funding from outside organizations to continue. "I needed additional funds to let me spend the following summer on campus to work on my SMP and to pay for supplies," she explained. "I was lucky to get not only a grant from Sigma Xi (a scientific research and honors society), but also one from the Maryland Ornithological Society."

So with her huge straw hat, tape recorders and microphones in hand, and help from friends Nick Friedman and Sarah Walker, Becky worked outside "at ungodly hours of the morning" all summer. For one aspect of her research, Becky had "tapes of the red-winged blackbird songs that I made from recordings I did during the Weitzel program and played them to males out in the field to see how they would react. During these playbacks, I also tape-recorded the songs that the males sang in response. Mostly, when they hear the tapes play, they freak out and do displays and sing, because they really, really want the other male out of their territory."

When she asked which faculty members at St. Mary's helped inspire her, Becky demurs that "it would take too much room to name them all." But she points to Jordan Price and "his enthusiasm for biology, supportive attitude, and great sense of humor are constant sources of inspiration. What other professor would promise his lab class that he would sing "O Canada" – in French, no less – if they finished early, and then actually do it?"

Becky is not yet entirely sure what she will do after graduation. "Probably grad school in a couple of years. Right now, I'm planning on getting a job that is biology-related, maybe at a raptor rehabilitation center or an internship with a biology research study." But, one gets the feeling, any career path needs to involve both animals and the outdoors. "I grew up on a sheep farm outside Frederick, Maryland, and think being outside so much is what made me really like biology," she says. "I love that after feeding the sheep in the winter – when it's frosty and cold, and the moon is just coming up – you can hear the sheep pigging down dinner in the barn, and hear owls calling from down in the trees."