PELLSTON, Mich. — Music is a major part of Jasper Mitchell’s life. Especially the pageantry, energy and skilled performances of marching bands on football game days.
“I’m not the most outdoorsy person,” said the University of Michigan first-year student from East Grand Rapids.
That’s one of the reasons he brought his snare drum and sticks when he moved into his cabin at the University of Michigan Biological Station along Douglas Lake at the beginning of July to take two courses during the four-week summer term at the research and teaching campus in northern Michigan.
He also needed to practice. During down time from working in the field and the lab for Microbiology and General Ecology classwork, Mitchell rehearsed for final auditions for the iconic Michigan Marching Band.
Most days at the 11,000-acre field station in Pellston, located three and a half hours north of Ann Arbor and about 20 miles south of the Mackinac Bridge, he could be found in a parking lot along the shores of South Fishtail Bay in the middle of a forest by his car practicing his paradiddles.
Mitchell even showed off his skills with the sharp staccato sounds during the 2024 UMBS Talent Show, performing “H.A.M.” from the Michigan Marching Band’s pre-game step show.
He brought that same steady beat of dedication to his intensive academic courses at the U-M Biological Station, a place where you learn from the natural world through hands-on work — earning seven credits in four weeks. UMBS students take classes six days a week, with Sundays off.
The recent high school graduate swiftly found his footing in the rhythm of life at the lakeside campus with a rich history of scientific discovery.
Founded in 1909, the U-M Biological Station is one of the nation’s largest and longest continuously operating field research stations.
Laboratories and cabins are tucked into more than 10,000 acres along Douglas Lake to support long-term climate research and education.
The Microbiology course at UMBS stood out for Mitchell because he is considering pre-med as his major. The summer experience at the field station in the Northwoods also starkly contrasted with how he expected a college class to be.
Nine students took Microbiology in 2024 at UMBS, and they traveled together with their U-M faculty instructor to immerse themselves in nature, including Douglas Lake, Mud Lake Bog and Carp Creek as well as Lake Michigan’s Poupard Bay in the Upper Peninsula and Sturgeon Bay in the Lower Peninsula.
Using samples collected from around northern Michigan, the students studied the basic biology of microbial life and techniques for working with microorganisms in a laboratory.
For example, students performed a gram staining technique to determine characteristics of bacteria samples taken from various spots around UMBS campus. They also prepared growth curve plates to determine which pH and media microbe samples grow best in.
“It’s unique,” Mitchell said. “On-campus in Ann Arbor as an introductory class, you’d have something like 200 students in a lecture hall. So having only nine of you is a little nerve-wracking but it’s also so much more enjoyable and you can learn stuff a lot faster. It was a really tight cohort.”
Dr. Vincent Denef, the Microbiology instructor at UMBS and an associate professor in the U-M Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, praised Mitchell’s academic leadership.
“Jasper was part of a wonderful group of students taking Bio207 at UMBS this summer. The students collaborated in an amazing way to help each other reach their best during this intense summer course,” Denef said. “Jasper was, despite being an incoming first-year student, a driving force in organizing the student study group, the final class show-and-tell project (a microbiology-inspired horror movie!), and weekly donut runs.”
Mitchell also ran in the UMBS 5K race.
And despite not being “outdoorsy” going into the experience, he left the Douglas Lake campus on Aug. 1 with a strong affection for and appreciation of his time in the forests, lakes and rivers of northern Michigan.
“I really, really loved it,” Mitchell said. “I had an awesome time. I met a lot of people, and it was super fun. Better than I could’ve imagined. It taught me a lot about how quickly you can adapt to something. I think that was probably the most powerful thing I learned.”
Thanks to the tight-knit community at the Biological Station in July, Mitchell entered his freshman year in August in Ann Arbor for the fall semester with a new group of friends, plus more confidence in the transition from high school to college.
Plus, his lakeside solo drum practice paid off.
Drumroll, please…
He landed a spot in the Michigan Marching Band for the 2024-25 season.
Mitchell made his Ann Arbor debut in Michigan Stadium as a member of the Michigan Drumline during the Wolverines game on Saturday, Aug. 31. Wearing the Maize and Blue uniform — complete with a plumed hat — he marches in the step shows and the halftime performances and plays songs in the stands, most thrillingly, “Victors,” the U-M fight song, after each touchdown.
