For recent University of South Florida graduate Natalie AmRhein, the college experience was about more than attending classes and earning a degree — it was about shaping a unique career path at the intersection of climate research and medicine.
Finding Your Tribe
Originally from Colorado and a National Merit Scholar — students who score in the
top 1% on the PSAT during their junior year of high school — AmRhein had a wide array
of options when initially deciding where to go to college.
According to AmRhein, she was interested in a college environment that would push
her beyond the comforts of home, and USF quickly emerged as a top choice because of
the support the university offers to National Merit Scholars. Generous scholarships,
dedicated advising, automatic admittance into USF’s Judy Genshaft Honors College,
and exclusive events and opportunities all worked together to entice AmRhein to make
the trek from Colorado to the Sunshine State.
“USF made it very easy for me to say yes,” she said.
Despite the benefits, AmRhein’s first year tested her confidence in her decision to
move across the country. Missing both family and her outdoor lifestyle in Colorado,
she found herself wondering if she could truly flourish in Florida.
“USF made it very easy for me to say yes." — Natalie AmRhein
Her experience in the Honors College helped change her perspective.
“When I came here, I didn’t know a single person,” said AmRhein, “but the Honors College
was like a home in the very big, chaotic world of college. I even found roommates
in my Honors Foundations class. All of that support was what really made the difference.”
After learning about the Honors Semester in England program in her freshman Acquisition of Knowledge class, an introductory seminar required
for all first-year Honors students, AmRhein spent four months studying abroad in the
United Kingdom. Despite being even further from home, she began to feel like she was
thriving. She quickly realized it wasn’t the place, but her own perspective that had
grown.
“When I was on the Honors Semester in England trip, I was really thinking ‘Why am
I having such a great time?’ So, I made a vow to myself when I came back that I was
going to be living in Florida like a study abroad — taking advantage of every moment,”
she said.
That promise led her to reconnect with her outdoor roots. Upon returning to USF, she
began working as an adventure trip guide for USF Recreation and Wellness. In her free
time, she took outdoor novices on trips to places like the Smoky Mountain National
Park and Hawaii. As a trip guide, she created her own itineraries and was responsible
for keeping everyone organized. These experiences, she said, “felt like home.”
Hands-On and People-First Research
Once USF felt like home, AmRhein’s academic career began to blossom. She turned her
focus to undergraduate research opportunities and found herself drawn to the intersections
of climate change and health care. She reached out to Dr. Katherine Alfredo, an environmental
engineer in USF’s College of Engineering studying health policy, whose work aligned
with her interests.
Under Alfredo’s guidance, AmRhein developed her Honors thesis on hazardous waste sites
known as Superfund sites, environmental contamination, and health outcomes. She also
participated in a National Science Foundation IRES project in Ghana, working on water
sanitation and science education.
“It really started as an organic process and questioning, ‘What is environmental health?’
I found out I’m really interested in understanding the health impacts of environmental
issues.”
What she didn’t expect was getting the chance to work at the USF Libraries Special Collections archive. Applying concepts from her Honors courses abroad, AmRhein approached her archival
research through a phenomenological lens.
"I literally dug through hundreds of boxes, looking at documents, finding letters
from people who live near these Superfund sites, government documents, and pictures
to add the lived aspect of what the data says and means,” she said. “This is why science
communication is important; it adds that historical lens and brings it back into the
human realm of the people that are affected.”
“If you had told me four years ago that I would be working in a library archive, I
would have been like, ‘are you out of your mind?’” she said.
Discovering New Opportunities
Another unexpected research opportunity helped AmRhein define her focus in medical
research, and a one-of-a-kind conference experience helped solidify her career path.
After discovering the Climate Health Equity Day 2025 conference in Washington, D.C., she seized the opportunity to connect with others
pursuing similar research and to build her professional network.
“I stumbled upon this conference that was medical professionals advocating and doing
climate change research on health. And I was immediately thought, ‘I found my people.
There they are.’” she said. “I got to talk with medical students, medical professionals,
hospital administrators — all these different people who work in exactly the area
that I want to go into.”
At the conference, AmRhein also visited the U.S. Capitol and witnessed medical professionals
advocate for sustainability research to legislators.
Now, AmRhein is continuing her study of sustainable, people-centered health research
through her graduate degree. She is embarking on a dual master’s program: during one
year, she will complete a master’s in translational medical research at the University
of Heidelberg in Germany, and the next year, a master’s in molecular medicine and
innovative treatment at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands.
Because she often found her combined interests in climate change and health care to
be uncommon, AmRhein looks forward to connecting with fellow researchers in her international
graduate program.
“The reason I chose this program was because it felt very human — it acknowledged
that medicine and treating global health problems is a creative process that can’t
be removed from research,” said AmRhein. “They have a learning line called B-B-B —
bench to bedside and beyond — which highlights the translation between the bench and
the lab with the people that it impacts.”
“This is my dream grad program,” she said.