Seizing the Opportunity

Sophomore Janet Larios researched mollusks and made some decisions about her future, thanks to the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program and the guidance of mentors. Photography by Christina Merrill/Michigan Photography

Sophomore Janet Larios has her mother to thank for some sound advice that has carried her far in life. “She taught me to take any opportunity that’s given to you,” Larios says.

That was Larios’s philosophy when she received an email from LSA about the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP), which connects undergrads with research mentors around the university. Larios, a first-generation college student, applied and found herself with several options in departments throughout LSA.

The aspiring conservation biologist, who has a special interest in marine biology, chose the option that aligned most closely with her interests. That’s how it came to be that Larios was measuring the shells of snails and other mollusks in a basement lab in the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology on a recent afternoon.

The mollusks were found among the remains from Tel Anafa, a site in modern-day Israel that was excavated by U-M researchers in the 1970s and ’80s. The size of Hula Lake where the mollusks were found has fluctuated over time, flooding and drying intermittently, and was completely drained in the 1950s. Such dramatic changes in the lake caused the extinction of several species, and little is known about how freshwater species in the area were used prior to that.

With guidance from her mentors—Bailey Franzoi, a Ph.D. student in the Interdepartmental Program in Mediterranean Art and Archaeology, and Laura Motta, assistant professor of classical studies with a focus on environmental archaeology—she obtained specimens from the Tel Anafa excavation that are currently kept in the Kelsey Lab. She also used a separate collection from other sites that were collected in the early 20th century. These specimens, housed in the Research Museums Center, were closely related to modern specimens from the same region.

The older specimens, from the Hellenistic-Roman period, were found to be larger and probably healthier on average than those from the Tel Anafa dig. The species also were found to be mostly freshwater or land gastropods. Their size and presence in large construction fills, rather than domestic floor contexts, led Larios, Franzoi, and Motta to determine that residents of Tel Anafa were using resources from the Jordan River system (and probably Lake Hula specifically), not the marine Mediterranean, and that the mollusks were used for construction rather than consumption.

In the Kelsey, the three researchers chat and laugh amiably about how tedious it is to clean a large collection of shells, further research that could be conducted using the Tel Anafa specimens, and the vast experience that Larios has gained as a college sophomore.

“She did a lot of really detailed measurements to try to figure out the health of the lake that our little critters might have been coming from, are they more or less healthy than the modern ones, things like that,” Franzoi says. The experience, she says, will give Larios a leg up in her future pursuits.

Motta is something of a UROP super-mentor, having welcomed at least 25 undergrads into her lab through the years. Most, including Larios, stay on a second year—and many for three years or more. Some have gone on to medical or law school, while others have pursued diverse fields of study in graduate school—including some who discovered a passion for archaeology while working with Motta and chose it for their careers. 

Larios (center) consults with her mentors on the project: Bailey Franzoi, a Ph.D. student in the Interdepartmental Program in Mediterranean Art and Archaeology (left), and Laura Motta, assistant professor of classical studies with a focus on environmental archaeology (right). 

The UROP students aren’t the only ones who benefit from the experience, she says. “From a faculty perspective, UROP students bring an incredible energy and diversity of backgrounds,” Motta says. “I’ve especially valued working with first-generation students, many of whom arrive via community college transfer programs and bring unique perspectives and resilience. I have become particularly appreciative of the challenges they face.”

Motta sees the mentorship of UROP students as “central to my mission as an educator and archaeologist. In the lab, I’m able to teach critical thinking, deductive and inductive reasoning, and the logical sequence of cause and consequences in past events and human behaviors, a unique hands-on understanding of time, context, and humanity—not easily achieved in large introductory lectures.”

Other UROP students engage in projects throughout the university in areas as diverse as Shakespeare, age-related muscular changes, and NASA space probes. 

Through her UROP experience, Larios made a significant discovery not just about mollusks but also about herself. “I know for a fact that I will be in PitE now,” she says of the Program in the Environment, a university-wide collaborative effort overseen by LSA and the School for Environment and Sustainability. “I don’t know if I would’ve figured that out by now if it hadn’t been for UROP.”

Another LSA experience is helping to shape her future goals as well: She was named a student ambassador at the U-M Biological Station in the northern Lower Peninsula for the 2025–26 academic year. Over the summer, she worked there on a project in which she helped to predict the population of snails. 

“I have learned that I really love being in the field and working in a lab. I’m really building my resume with everything that I’ve had the opportunity to do,” she says. “It’s like my mom taught me: Don’t say no to new experiences. I love making these connections and dipping my toes in everything.”