This summer, the buzzing bees followed Mia Karathanasis ’22 as she studied the ancient art of beekeeping and its connection to climate change on Kos island in Greece for her Junior Fellowship Project. Karathanasis gathered footage during her studies and is in the process of putting together a short film about the project.

Karathanasis said she enjoyed the application process because of her topic’s connection to her family’s Greek ancestry and culture.

“I knew I wanted to take advantage of the opportunity, and the idea to study beekeeping in Greece came to me pretty easily because of my family connection to Greece,” Karathanasis said. “I enjoy writing and [was interested in] what I was writing about, so the application itself was enjoyable.”

As Karathanasis delved further into her research, she said the central question of her project became clear.

“As I looked more into it, I found a ton of information on the problems that the beekeeping industry worldwide is having due to climate change, which is an issue that I also really care about,” Karathanasis said. “But in Greece there didn’t seem to be nearly as big of a problem. This begged the question of why, and I ran with that for the fellowship.”

The fellowship grant allowed Karathanasis to interact closely with her subject matter on Kos island.

“I used the money [to pay for] plane tickets to Greece, a translator for whatever Greek I couldn’t understand, some meals and tickets to various ancient sites on Kos from where I’m using footage in the little film I’m putting together,” Karathanasis said.