bat conservationist

Nature Lover

GROWING UP IN CINCINNATI, OHIO

01 / As a kid, I loved being outside, reading, and participating in Girl Scouts. But I never really enjoyed math, physics, or chemistry classes. I loved climbing trees, running around barefoot, and birdwatching. I first got interested in science when my mom and I would spend winters counting birds in our local community (if you’re interested, you can join “bird counts” in cities everywhere!).

02 / I would help my grandma garden and collect the worms so I could examine them. I originally thought I wanted to study bugs!

03 / I’m a Lifetime Member of the Girl Scouts. The program played a huge role in helping me develop leadership skills and learn how science could help serve my neighborhoods. I got to work on lots of science and nature projects. I earned my Silver Award in 6th grade by building and installing bat houses in a local park and my Gold Award by leading a prairie restoration project in 10th grade.

Finding My Passion

GETTING STARTED IN STEM BY WORKING OUTDOORS

01 / When I started college, I thought I was going to be a wildlife vet. I tried lots of different things before I discovered my passion for bats and conservation. I majored in Zoology and started to volunteer in research labs during my Freshman year. I’d spend my summers traveling to do what’s called “field research”, which is when you spend all day out in nature collecting data. One summer I studied birds in Ogallala, Nebraska, and another summer I went to Texas to chase bats around pecan orchards (and study them, too).

02 / I learned that bats are really amazing and important creatures. They do things like pollinate plants, eat insects (which helps make sure there aren’t too many), and disperse seeds which help keep the plants they eat thriving. Unfortunately, due to things like growing cities and farms, some bats are in danger.

03 / My senior year, I did a project installing bat houses on farms and learned that farmers can play a huge role in making sure that bats have safe places to eat and live. I realized that I didn’t just want to do the research, I wanted to be a bridge between bats and the people that could save them.

Getting my PhD

GOING TO THE RIGHT GRADUATE SCHOOL FOR ME

01 / I felt that a PhD could help my career. But research was never my favorite part of science. I wanted to do more policy and outreach work. There are lots of different types of graduate programs out there. I wanted to do a PhD, which means doing research on a specific topic in your field, but I also wanted to build my skills as a conservationist and communicator. So I found a program at the University of Georgia, Integrative Conservation, that taught me about both the science of bats and the best ways to work with communities in the US and Mexico.

02 / Graduate school was challenging for me, and I had to overcome “imposter syndrome”, which means I didn’t always feel like I was good enough or smart enough to be there. But my peers all felt the same way, and we supported each other through it.

03 / I realized that there is no right answer in conservation work. You are always solving problems and trying to figure out solutions that work for the plants, the animals, and the people that are involved.

Becoming a Conservationist

FINDING A CAREER THAT FITS MY INTERESTS

01 / After graduating, I knew I didn’t want to be a professor. So I looked for jobs that would let me focus more on teaching others and helping create real-world solutions.

02 / Throughout college and graduate school, I spent a lot of time going to conferences and meeting different people in my field. I wanted to make sure I built relationships with people and organizations that I admired so that I would have options after graduation.

03 / A lot of people think that if you go into science, you have to work in a lab for the rest of your life. That’s not true at all, and I definitely didn’t want to do that. So I found lots of other options that would let me do the parts of science that I love most.