Even though her research on bees can get pretty complicated, her motivation isn’t: Paige just really, really loves bees. “I just think bees are super cool,” Paige laughs. "I was thinking about going to med school when I first came to Nebraska, but in my heart, I knew I had this love for bees that I wanted to explore. So, during my freshman year, I got a job working at the Bee Lab.” From there, Paige never looked back. Working under a graduate researcher in unlbeelab, Paige started digging into her passion and seeing ways she could grow it into a career. “The grad student at the time was doing a wild bee project similar to the one I'm doing today. I got to go out into the field with her to study wild bee populations, and that’s where I realized that I wanted to study bees for my career.” Paige has been collecting bee data ever since. Her undivided love isn’t (just) because they’re cute — bees are crucial to our ecosystems, from our farmlands to the gardens we enjoy right here on c...