{"id":21259,"date":"2017-01-30T10:27:38","date_gmt":"2017-01-30T15:27:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eng.ufl.edu\/newengineer\/?p=21259"},"modified":"2025-06-11T12:33:01","modified_gmt":"2025-06-11T17:33:01","slug":"u-s-presidential-management-fellow-finalist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eng.ufl.edu\/news\/eli\/u-s-presidential-management-fellow-finalist\/","title":{"rendered":"Our U.S. Presidential Management Fellow Finalist"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article was originally published on UF’s College of Agricultural and Life Sciences<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A University of Florida student is eligible for fast-track appointment to government occupations as a finalist of the U.S. Presidential Management Fellows Program. The program is reserved for individuals across the nation with advanced degrees who have gone through a rigorous selection process to become finalists. As a finalist, Natalie Nelson, an agricultural and biological engineering Ph.D. candidate, will have access to a jobs portal for the full 2017 year where she can apply to positions that interest her. Less than 7 percent of the applicants to the program received this honor.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of [the fellowship program] is higher level work with high impact,\u201d said Nelson. \u201cIt\u2019s very much an applied science. Most of the job portal has career offerings in law, health care administration, foreign diplomacy and similar positions. Science positions are a minority, but I plan to apply to all the jobs related to water. Regardless of if I get a job through this fellowship, I\u2019m most interested in having meaningful impact through my work.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nThe Presidential Management Fellows Program is administered by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management and has existed for more than 30 years for the purpose of developing potential leaders in the U.S. government. The 2017 finalists represent 59 disciplines, 141 academic institutions and 41 veterans, according to the program website.<\/p>\n

Nelson\u2019s career interests involve natural resource management, wetlands and water resources. She has worked diligently in her research to determine solutions to preventing blue-green algae bloom formations, particularly in fresh and estuarial systems in Florida and tidal wetlands.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cAs a student, Natalie is very self-motivated and hardworking,\u201d said Nelson\u2019s mentor and UF\/IFAS professor of hydrology and water quality, Rafael Munoz-Carpena. \u201cShe\u2019s easily in the top 1 percent of students I\u2019ve had over the years. Natalie is one of those students we always dream of having. She has several manuscripts and papers already published. She\u2019s going to be great in anything she sets her mind to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nelson\u2019s many accomplishments include conducting wetland research with the Smithsonian Institution, representing Florida at the Geosciences Congressional Visits Day on behalf of the American Geophysical Union, and earning back-to-back first place wins in the Campus RainWorks EPA challenge, among many others.
\nNelson also earned her bachelor\u2019s degree at UF in agricultural and biological engineering and is an alumna of UF\u2019s Engineering Leadership Institute at the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering. During her time at UF, she had the opportunity to join other graduate students in creating a summer research program for dual enrolled high school students. She said the most rewarding part of the experience was receiving feedback from students, who previously did not have an interest in wetlands, saying they had a greater appreciation for resource conservation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m thankful to have had the opportunity to teach those students about a topic they aren\u2019t often exposed to in school,\u201d Nelson said. \u201cI always had an interest in engineering, but not always water until I took a wetland ecology course my first year in grad school at UF. I began taking more classes in fresh water and coastal wetlands. When you love going to class, that\u2019s an indication that\u2019s what you\u2019re meant to do!\u201d<\/p>\n

By: Dana Edwards, 352-392-1963, dana.edwards@ufl.edu
\nSources: Natalie Nelson, 407-314-7207, nataliegnelson@ufl.edu
\nRafael Munoz-Carpena, 352-392-1864 ext. 287, carpena@ufl.edu<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Natalie Nelson is a doctoral student studying agricultural & biological engineering and an alumna of the Engineering Leadership Institute.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2592,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"single-templates\/single-sidebar-none.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"featured_post":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[29,43,57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-eli","category-honors-awards","category-stories"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nOur U.S. Presidential Management Fellow Finalist - News from Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.eng.ufl.edu\/news\/eli\/u-s-presidential-management-fellow-finalist\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Our U.S. Presidential Management Fellow Finalist - 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