Tips for Students from the Hawaii Conference

I recently had the once in a lifetime opportunity to attend the TWS annual conference in Hawaii. I felt very lucky to have been able to go, and know it wasn’t possible for many students. I had such a great time and learned a lot and I’d like to pass some of what I learned on to those students who weren’t able to make the trip.

Every year at the annual conference after the student research-in-progress poster session, they hold a student professional mixer where students have to opportunity to mingle with professionals in the their field, to scope out jobs, look for graduate advisors and seek general advice.

Often these mixers start off feeling a little awkward for students, who conglomerate into groups with other students they traveled with. Breaking the ice can be a little difficult, but so much can be gained if one is willing to step out and chat it up with professional. I don’t find it the easiest thing in the world to walk up and start a conversation with folks I don’t know, but I braved it this year and gleaned some useful tips from professionals on what they look for in students and recent graduates. I spoke with a few folks and this is what they had to say.

Bob Lanka from the Wyoming Game and Fish Department and Scott Lerich from the National Wild Turkey Federation were kind enough to offer some insights on what they like to see from students applying for jobs.

· First and foremost, students looking for wildlife jobs should be willing to get dirty, be outside in all weather conditions and be happy doing it (that’s easy right, that’s why we got into this field!).

· Practical knowledge of wildlife that doesn’t come from text books; grades are important but real life experience is critical.

· Hunting; you don’t need to be a hunter and if you’re a vegetarian that’s great, but it’s important to understand the value of hunting and what sportsmen offer to wildlife management.

· Common sense and outdoor skills; professionals want to know they are hiring someone they can send out in the wilderness and not worry about them. Skills like driving a manual transmission and orienteering are incredibly valuable. First aid, CPR and even Wilderness First Responder are certifications everyone should try to get and keep updated.

· Communication skills, both oral and written! You have to be able to communicate with people in order to build credibility, because it’s hard to gain and easy to lose, and if you plan on working for an agency or a non-profit, you will have to deal with the public and landowners. It is crucial to have real listening skills, even when someone disagrees with you and may not respect you or your organization. Without the ability to listen and establish a relationship with the people you work with and around you will not be successful.

· Being professional is another aspect of communication and is essential in today’s modern world. Maintaining your cool and projecting a professional demeanor even in controversial situations shows that you are really serious about your job.

· Despite the emphasis on field experience and practical skills, the knowledge you gain from your classes at university is essential. Core classes like mammalogy, ornithology, herpetology and especially botany and other plant related classes are key. Many students I know complain about habitat and botany classes, but without habitat there is no wildlife. Know your plants!

· Last but not least is involvement with your professional society. If you’re a doctor, you should be involved with medical associations; if you’re a lawyer, you should be part of the bar association; likewise wildlife professionals should be actively involved in TWS. As a student, you can be involved by running for board positions for your student chapter. If your university doesn’t have a student chapter, you can establish one! You need at least ten full-time students from your school, a faculty advisor or two, and a set of bylaws created for chapter conduct approved by The Wildlife Society Council. To get started contact your local professional chapter or your section’s Student Affairs Committee. Many times local chapters also welcome students on their boards, and any time you have the chance to attend a conference you should take it. Hawaii may be too far for many, but every year the National and Section Conferences are held in a variety of locations and student travel grants are available through Nationals, Sections, and often Chapters as well.

After talking with Bob and Scott I felt like they offered a ton of great advice but I also wanted to know what graduate advisors might be after in their students. For that, I spoke with Dr. Anna Chalfoun from University of Wyoming, Professor in zoology and physiology. She offered this advice to those of you out there looking for a graduate assistantship.

· Be engaged, motivated and professional!

· Today schools are more competitive than ever, so those G.P.A.’s and G.R.E. scores are more important than ever.

· Get out and volunteer, get research experience any way you can. Try to focus on your interests if you know what they are, but most important get out in the field.

· If you are applying to a graduate lab, know what they do, read about the research they’ve done and projects other graduate students have done. Address each lab individually; never send generic letters.

· Rather than spending energy telling them why you would be such a great addition to their lab, try to emphasize how your relationship can be mutually beneficial.

· Try not to be too focused on your favorite taxon; think more about how you want to study things, from what perspective you want to examine questions. Be flexible! Master’s degrees don’t need to be exactly what you want to do with your career, but they offer a chance to hone your skills, get experience writing and analyzing, and narrowing your focus.

· Try to find funded projects (no kidding right?) There’s lots of work out there with funding if you are willing to be flexible about what you study.

· Be respectful and convey that you understand what an investment it takes from graduate advisors to take on students; never take anything for granted.

With that I bid you aloha and hope you can make it to your next section conference and the National Conference next year in Portland Oregon!

Developing a Food Ethic

Every day we make choices, and those choices often impact the world around us in bigger ways that we might think. As a student, I face the challenge of operating on a slim budget. I have very few dollars and must make frequent choices about what to buy with them. These choices are not always easy; I often find the toughest ones are those revolving around what I consume. Food is not something that finds itself very high on many students’ priority lists; very often, macaroni and cheese and ramen are the sorts of things students line their cupboards with. Sometimes we have to make do with what we have, right? The truth is, most of us don’t think about it much at all; eating can be this secondary thing we do once in a while as we dash from class to class and try and get our homework done. It is becoming apparent, however, that eating and the dollars we put toward it have much greater impacts than we may realize.

Well sure, you might think, nutrition is important; but nutrition isn’t the only consideration. For students of the natural resources, agriculture has massive implications for resource use. I study wildlife biology with the intent of working in conservation and management. It is certainly no secret that habitat loss and degradation are the number one threat to biodiversity worldwide; any good conservation biology text will espouse as much. So where is all that land going? It’s going to many things, but by and large the most acreage is devoted to agriculture. That in itself isn’t so horrible; modern industrial mono-crop agriculture, however, is another beast entirely. In the words of Aldo Leopold, “As for diversity, what remains of our native fauna and flora remains only because agriculture has not got around to destroying it. The present ideal of agriculture is clean farming; clean farming means a food chain aimed solely at economic profit and purged of all non-conforming links.” Leopold passed away in 1948, at the early rise of the Green Revolution, when synthesized fertilizers and man-made chemicals truly reached their height in modern industrial agriculture systems. Today, it has become a world-wide phenomenon, and truly threatens biodiversity and food security.

There are many of us who realize the dangers of “clean farming”. Many are outspoken about the injustices of modern agribusiness and are calling for a new way to grow, cook, and eat food. Many of us have gardens, and procure protein from nature with a hunting license. Farmer’s markets and community supported agriculture are on the rise. One of sustainable food’s most outspoken proponents, Michael Pollan, was recently interviewed on the subject (find the whole article at http://p2.to/19nf). He stated that “...we just don’t have the choice of continuing down the path of this highly industrialized, highly fossil fuel-dependent food industry, even if we wanted to. Food security... is endangered by having the food system we have. We have to figure out another way to do it. And to say the only alternative is the tiny artisinal farm is false. There are many ways to do it. All of them involve changing industrial agricultural, however.” This is all well and wonderful, but how about those of us with slim pocket books? The “food movement,” as it is often referred to, is frequently accused of being elitist, as organics in grocery stores can be more expensive and some farmer’s markets are as well. To that, Pollan responded, “A great many social movements in this country have begun with elites, with people who have the time and the resources to devote to them... go back to abolition, women’s suffrage, the environmental movement. The reason that good food is more expensive than cheap food is part of the issue we’re trying to confront. And has to do with subsidies, and the way we organize our society and our economy. Those are big systemic problems.”

We are merely students. We have projects and papers and finals to deal with; big systemic problems are too large and overwhelming for us to address. False. Every dollar counts. Every time we shop, every time we hand over a George Washington, we are voting. Our votes on ballots matter, too, and we must participate there. More importantly, we can make statements with our everyday choices. We may not be able to do it every time, but as often as we can, we should. “The evolution of a land ethic is an intellectual as well as emotional process... The mechanism of operation is the same for any ethic: social approbation for right actions: social disapproval for wrong actions.” Once again, Leopold provides a framework for us to build an ethic that supports life and diversity. This isn’t to say we should chastise ourselves or our friends for ramen on the shelf; that is not the message I wish to convey. I simply wish to provide a reminder that little things do make a difference, and conservation is not just about studies and papers, but about our personal choices as well.

What Would Aldo Do?

This is a blog to address contemporary issues related to wildlife conservation and the making of a modern wildlife professional. Bloggers are members of the Student Affairs Committee of the Western Section of The Wildlife Society