Sonia Alcantar of Gainesville is one of three recent graduates of the University of North Georgia awarded internships with the U.S. Department of Energy to study at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in Los Alamos, N.M., and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Wash.

Alcantar is working as an intern at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

Alcantar, one of four children, is the first member of her family to graduate from a university. She has been involved with undergraduate research since her sophomore year, and she graduated in December 2016 with a Bachelor of Science in biology.

“In addition to the spring 2017 SULI opportunity at PNNL, I was also selected as an intern for summer 2017,” Alcantar said. “My current research is being conducted in a boreal peatland forest in northern Minnesota made up of black spruce. There are multiple sections which are "encased" by their own individual greenhouses which allow the scientist to control the environment, specifically that of the temperature and atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations, which vary by location.”

SULI interns are provided a salary for their work in the laboratories, as well as expenses during their stay. Each intern receives $500 per 40-hour workweek for the duration of the 16-week program.