Senior forestry major Leah Griffin was selected as FNR’s Outstanding Freshman in 2022, after acting as a
research assistant in Dr. Songlin Fei’s Natural Resources Spatial Analysis (NRSA) lab and becoming involved with the Student Chapter of Environmental Education (SCEE). In the three years since, the Martinsville, Ind., native has further impacted the department as a teaching assistant, in undergraduate research roles and through leadership roles in both the FNR Student Council and SCEE en route to her selection as Outstanding Senior for 2024-25.
“I received this honor my freshman year, and I believe the word I used to describe how I felt was ‘unreal,’" Griffin shared. “It still feels quite strange to be chosen as the outstanding senior and to act as a representative for my cohort since it started with me, and now it's ending with me. I have been working alongside my peers these past four years and can honestly tell you that so much good work has been done. I see it as my duty to make sure that the professional development and hard work of my classmates are recognized.
“My experience with FNR these past four years has been such a blessing to me. This award fills my heart with gratitude as it causes me to reflect on the friends made, classwork taken, fieldwork completed and lessons learned both professionally and personally. This award is such a privilege to receive, and, to me, it feels like the proof of my personal growth and the impact this department has had on me (for the better).”
Griffin is the current president of the Student Chapter of Environmental Education after joining the group in 2021 and serving as its treasurer in 2023-24. She also acted the sophomore representative to the FNR Student Council in 2022-23 and as its vice president the following year.
“As one of the most gifted and passionate students I have had the privilege of working with at Purdue, Leah has proven time and again that she is not only dedicated but capable of forging a career path to educating
others and support ongoing efforts to conserve the world's natural resources for our future and beyond,” said Megan Gunn, advisor for SCEE. “Leah has been extremely active in our organization. She has attended the parent chapter conferences to network with current professionals in the field, participated in professional development training to gain more skills in the environmental education realm and leads learning opportunities with high school students, scouts, and the community. (Her) passion for the environment, eagerness to create impactful educational opportunities for others, and commitment to the growth of SCEE is what led her to stand out as a leader and be selected by her peers to serve as the president for the 2024-2025 school year.”
At the 2025 FNR Awards/Scholarships Ceremony in April, Griffin received the FNR Undergraduate Engagement Award, which recognizes a senior who has demonstrated excellence in engagement and has shown the greatest potential for fulfilling the extension and research components of the Land Grant Mission. She also was recognized with the Forest Academic Merit Senior Award and as the Outstanding Senior Award recipient.
In addition to her FNR club involvement, Griffin helped found the 3rd Street Rollers, a roller skating/blading club at Purdue during the 2023-24 school year.
Academically, Leah was honored with the Forestry Academic Merit Junior Award for excellent academic performance last year. She has earned several certifications including Type 2 Wildland Firefighter, Project WILD, Project WET, Project Aquatic WILD and Project Learning Tree.
Leah worked as an undergraduate research assistant in the NRSA lab for a year and a half, collecting phenology data of a northern red oak plantation under Dr. Songlin Fei as well as digitizing files for historical genetic tree improvement trials alongside Rebekah Shupe.
Leah also gained hands-on experience in the field, working for two summers as a seasonal resource management technician at the Cikana State Fish Hatchery (2021, 2022) and one summer as a resource management technician for the Indiana Department of Natural Resources Division of Forestry (2023). At the hatchery, she aided in the channel catfish fingerling program, collecting and hatching eggs and feeding catfish fry. She also managed day to day operations such as property maintenance, feeding fishponds and recording dissolved oxygen levels and pond temperatures.
With the Division of Forestry, Leah’s role included marking timber at Martin State Forest, cleaning young tree plantations at Ravinia State Forest, conducting forest inventory at Yellowwood and Ravinia state forests, clearing and maintaining recreational trails at Yellowwood and treating invasive species at Yellowwood and Morgan-Monroe State Forest.
Leah has worked in FNR as a teaching assistant since the fall of 2023. She worked with the dendrology course in the fall of 2023 and 2024. In that role, she led weekly tree identification labs and explained multiple tree features to assist students in learning Midwestern trees by bark, twig and bud, leaves, growth form and site type. She also collaborated with other teaching assistants to create twig quizzes and other in-field activities. She also worked to introduce 8 to 15 new species to students weekly at various Purdue properties.
In the spring of 2024, Leah was a TA for the Natural Resource Measurements course, assisting with
instruction of field labs and helping teach students how to use forest measurement tools like Biltmore sticks, clinometers and compasses corrected for azimuth.
Last May, she returned to Iron River, Michigan, to act as a teaching assistant for the forestry program at FNR’s Summer Practicum. She kept and managed equipment inventory, assistant students with assignments and homework, graded lab reports, quizzes and presentations and answered in-field questions concerning equipment usage and natural resource measurement skills.
After graduation in May 2025, Leah plans to start a career in outreach and promote environmental education.
