Trent University professor Dr. Helen Haines has received a $20,000 grant from the National Geographic Society in support of her excavation project work at an ancient Mayan site in Belize, Central America. Professor Haines teaches anthropology at Trent and has been conducting research on Maya culture in northern Belize for 25 years. Professor Haines’s dream of becoming an archaeologist began when she found a book about Heinrich Schliemann’s discovery of Troy in the library of her elementary school. While at the University of Toronto in 1990, she participated in her first field trip to Belize and was fascinated by the possibilities. She now spends part of each year directing her own excavation project.