In high school, Jordan Horvieth watched the documentary “DamNation,” a film that outlined the issues surrounding dams on America’s waterways. It was, as she says, a “lightbulb moment,” illuminating the pathway to a career working to improve and restore rivers and marshes. This fall, Horvieth plans to graduate with a bachelor’s degree focused on aquatic sciences and was named Outstanding Senior for Fisheries by her fellow students and members of the UGA Fisheries Society. The path to her degree has taken a little longer than most—Horvieth is in her fifth year at Warnell, after transferring to UGA from Georgia State University. But she landed at Warnell after changing her major four times at Georgia State and realizing she needed to follow her passion—not what others felt was best for her. “I was a nursing major, then finance,” recalls Horvieth, who is originally from Decatur, Georgia. “Then I realized I should probably stop listening to other people and do what I thought was best for me.” At Georgia State, Horvieth set to finding the degree that best suited her. She sat down and did a Google search for “aquatic resource programs” in Georgia. Warnell was her first and only option. When she learned more about the White Dam removal project in 2018, led by professor Jay Shelton, it sealed the deal. Her plans after graduation are to get some experience in watershed restoration. This could be at a public or private agency, in any part of the state. Eventually, she says, she would like to land in the private sector. But her overall goal is to improve habitat and water quality for rivers or marshes. “I’m mostly interested in restoration—river or marsh restoration. I wouldn’t limit myself to just freshwater possibilities,” she says. “I’m also interested in ‘living shorelines,’ which are replacing natural oyster beds and act as a natural barrier for hurricanes and also improve the water quality.” But coming out of Warnell, Horvieth already has some good professional experience under her belt. For nearly two years, she has worked for the Athens-Clarke County Stormwater Department, where she assists with inspections, answers calls for illicit discharges and does educational outreach for the department at events throughout the year. For the past year, she has also worked in Warnell’s Hydrology Lab, where she assists with fish and macroinvertebrate sampling, set up preliminary study information for faculty and help graduate students with research and experiments. Horvieth laughs when she thinks about the time it’s taken to get to this point, but the experiences have been worth the wait. And, all the while, she’s never strayed from her goal. “My plans haven’t changed since I came to Warnell. But when I first started, I didn’t have many faculty connections. Now, I have connections with all the fisheries faculty,” she says. “I think my feelings toward Warnell, from where I started to where I am now, I’ve only grown fonder of Warnell.”
