Rob Covert
Butler, Pa.
Class of 2006
B.S. Biology

Virginia Tech let me skip right over my master’s degree because of my undergraduate research. I’ve shown I have the skills to create a research project, carry it out, and bring it all together at the end.

Heightened expectations: Rob spent his freshman year at Virginia Tech. “There you’d go to class, have lectures and four tests, and that’s it. Behrend is a lot harder because your professors get to know you and they expect more of you. I got to a point where if I did badly on a test, I felt like I let my professor down.”

Rob said his friends are amazed that it’s not unusual for him to attend informal events with Chancellor Jack Burke or Ken Miller, dean of student affairs. “It’s not that common at a lot of schools. The big heads of other places aren’t visible to students, so I think this is pretty significant.”

Research rewards: Rob returns to Virginia Tech this fall as a Ph.D. student studying the development of live-bearing reptiles. “Virginia Tech let me skip right over my master’s degree because of my undergraduate research. I’ve shown I have the skills to create a research project, carry it out, and bring it all together at the end.” At Behrend, Rob’s undergraduate research project involved the egg nesting physiology of black-capped chicadees with Margaret Voss, assistant professor of biology. (“Bird and reptiles are pretty similar, evolutionarily,” he said.) “Working with Dr. Voss really took it to the next level for me.”

Rob’s picks:

Book: Catch 22 by Joseph Heller.. “I read it for class, then read it again.”

Movie: The Natural. “I’m a huge baseball fan.”

Music: “There isn’t a type of music I don’t like.”

On my MP3: “A little bit of everything. Right now, a lot of the Clarks.”

Ringtone: “Walk This Way” by Aerosmith, “Family Tradition” by Hank Williams, Jr.

Technology I couldn’t live without: “It’d be hard to not have a computer, since many professors want your work submitted electronically.”