New beekeeping program at Quinnipiac in North Haven helps spread the importance of pollinators
On the outskirts of Quinnipiac University’s North Haven campus, Professor Tania Grguirch has taken her love of beekeeping to the next level.
Grguirch, a professor of diagnostic imaging, began a program involving eight hives and somewhere around 500,000 bees. The idea behind the hives is to engage students in getting involved in working with the bees and helping to spread the message of why pollinators are so important.
“Each semester our students will identify a project they want to do, and these projects are related to bees somehow," Grgurich said. “What we’re trying to do is keep this a sustainable project and have new students each semester expand on what we’ve built.”
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Kandie Everette, a Quinnipiac senior, got involved with the beehives last year. This year, her project is centered around informing elementary school students about the importance of pollinators.
"It’s basically to teach people not to be afraid of bees and that they actually have a lot of benefits,” Everette said. “Basically to let a lot of people know they are good -- the kids love it.”
Grgurich’s program has grown to eight hives on a campus greenspace and with it, so has her message about the importance of bees to the ecosystem.
She said, “just being able to see the bees and to hear the bees and to watch them work. For our students to take that into the community and talk to other students is so rewarding."
