Sequim High School senior Katherine Landoni has been keeping busy the past few years. A student, mentor, tutor and athlete, she takes advanced courses at SHS, played varsity basketball as a sophomore, junior and senior. She’s assistant manager of the Sequim Farmers Market on the weekends during the spring and summer.

On weekdays throughout the summer she spends her time working at a local lavender farm and, with her passion for environmental issues, she’s involved in her school’s ecology and Be the Change clubs. She’s also been a member of the after school Science and Engineering Club at Sequim Middle School for the past seven years, supported by teacher Deb Beckett and many community members.

Landoni was one of a dozen talented young scientists from across the United States elected from nearly 1,300 applicants vying to win the “Discover a New Path – Explore Germany!” contest sponsored by the German government.

The youths, from Virginia and Tennessee to Texas, California and Landoni — Washington state’s lone representative — visited several research institutions in the fields of geoscience, bionics and aerospace from Nov. 28-Dec. 7.

Along with seeing some historical sites, students also visited Germany’s capital, Berlin, and experienced life in a German school in Braunschweig, part of an all-expense-paid trip courtesy of the Foreign Office of the Federal Republic of Germany (equivalent to the U.S. Department of State).

“I am deeply curious about the Earth,” Landoni says. “Science has long captivated me and it is deeply embedded into how I live and view the world. In college, the ability to combine physics, chemistry, biology, math and technology to solve real-world science topics with a strong element of problem solving, appeals to me. I plan to study environmental engineering, geosciences and management; my ultimate aspiration is to receive a Ph.D.”

Landoni has been accepted to the Honors Colleges at Oregon State University and University of Oregon and the Honors Program at Western Washington University to pursue her undergraduate degree.

“I’m still waiting to hear from a couple other colleges,” Landoni says. “I would like to pursue my Ph.D. at Cal-Berkeley, University of Washington or study abroad.”

In September, Landoni was selected to present her research, “Mitigating Seismic Liquefaction Using Magnetized Iron Nanoparticles in a Ferrofluid,” at the Washington State Academy of Sciences annual meeting to promote STEM research. That earned her a nomination by the Washington State Academy of Sciences as a National American Association for the Advancement of Science delegate, San Jose, Calif. She will be representing Washington state and presenting her research at the 2015 Annual AJAS Convention in February.

Here, Landoni talks about her experience in Germany:

“The Goethe-Institut in Chicago contacted the Society for Science and the Public, a nonprofit organization dedicated to public engagement in scientific research and education, to select high school students that had won National Science Competitions to apply for the Germany for STEM Students experience. I received an invitation to apply because I have competed in several National STEM competitions and have won national awards for my scientific research.

The application included a short biography, a statement explaining why I would like to travel to Germany and what I expect from the experience, a STEM research project between 20-30 pages (I submitted my scientific research entitled, ‘Magnitude 9 Earthquakes as a Basis for Soil Liquefaction Analysis’) and letters of recommendation from teachers.

My current personal favorite field of scientific study from those listed above is geosciences.

I think environmental issues represent some of the most important challenges facing the 21st century. Few generations to date have had the amazing influence to impact our Earth on a worldwide scale. The past century has seen numerous advancements in technology and an improved quality of life. These achievements also have given humans the power to permanently alter our planet and its fragile ecosystems. I believe it is important to improve our quality of life, but it is equally important not to compromise future generations by sacrificing the only natural environment we have.

However, from the trip, I thoroughly enjoyed visiting the laboratories at universities and learning about the biomedical research the graduate students are conducting. I was surprised to see how similar American and German science laboratories were.

From the perspective of a geoscientist, traveling on trains proved to be most intriguing because I was able to see the topography and geography of the German landscape and how different it is from that of the Pacific Northwest’s. The German landscapes were flat fields with windmills poking through the low clouds, which lasted the entire duration of our trip.

My favorite place to visit just for fun was Cologne because the town had old charm. There was a festive, unique Christmas market at the foot of an impressive Cologne Cathedral (the largest in Germany). While in Cologne the group stayed in a hostel on the opposite side of the Rhine River. The city seemed even more enchanting because of the lights at night and the foot traffic path to the city over the Hohenzollern Bridge is lined with thousands of love lockets. While in Cologne, the group also visited a chocolate museum.

Although nothing unusually strange occurred on my trip, there were many things that were just different from the United States. Examples include all drinking water is bottled and carbonated, using the restroom costs a few Euros, alcohol can be consumed in public and the doors operate differently.

Most of the time we stayed with the group in either hotels or hostels, but for a period of four days while in Brunswick I stayed with the family of a student who attended a STEM magnet school in the small residential suburb, Lamme. The old, charming house was on a narrow cobblestone street about 30 minutes outside of the Brunswick city.

This was my first time out of the country (not including Canada). This experience has solidified my feelings about studying abroad in college or even living outside of the country for portions of my life. I know that I will revisit Germany and travel to other European countries in my not-so-distant adult life.

The thing that surprised me most about the German culture was how the adults treated kids and young adults. The adults treated them as equals, yet the children still had respect for their parents. In addition, the students at the schools didn’t often have homework. However, the students were focused and worked hard in class. Their academic and personal lives were not highly integrated.”

Everyone has a story and now they have a place to tell it. Verbatim is a first-person column that introduces you to your neighbors as they relate in their own words some of the difficult, humorous, moving or just plain fun moments in their lives. It’s all part of the Gazette’s commitment as your community newspaper. If you have a story for Verbatim, contact editor Michael Dashiell at editor@sequimgazette.com.