Me, Myself, & I

This semester has contributed to my personal and professional growth in various ways. I have learned to enjoy living in a living and learning community because I have found that many of my peers share the same academic goals and attitude towards saving the environment, no matter what professional career path we have chosen to follow. I enjoyed this living and learning community experience most because it made it easier for group members to get together and work on projects, and this was especially important since we had so many group projects throughout the semester. I feel that it has also attributed to my feeling of being a part of something, such as this small community at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute. I have been able to interact with not only my peers and teachers, but also with conservation professionals who work in and around Front Royal, Virginia.

Another aspect of this semester that I was surprised that I enjoyed so much was my practicum experience. I felt very lucky to have received my top choice of practicum which was at the Last Resort Farm. I knew from the start that I was interested in learning more about gardening and plants since it is something I don’t have much experience with at home because we don’t have enough room to grow a garden. I learned more than I could ever imagine from my mentor, Rick Stafford. He taught me all about permaculture and the techniques that go along with it. I was involved in numerous projects on his farm which I am happy to say give me a sense of pride because they were not always the easiest of projects. To name a few, I was involved with the design and construction of a rain garden, a hugelkultur bed, and the harvesting process. All of which were manually intensive and left mud caked clothing and sore backs for tending afterwards. Rick taught me about beneficial herbs and where to strategically place pollinator strips, berms, and swales around a garden. He taught me about the importance of growing one’s own food and how future conservationists should create more gardens in urban areas. I have taken his idea into consideration and would like to do something similar in the future since I am interested in urban planning and design.

In regards to the core competencies, I can say that I have gained many more skills than I ever thought I could in this program. I think I have improved my communication while participating in the SMSC program this semester. For example, I have learned to speak up in class and ask questions or make comments, something of which I never used to do in fear of ridicule from other students. I have always had a difficult time speaking aloud because I am shy and can’t formulate my sentences well in front of others. Activities such as the prep page journal club and oral presentations have helped to foster growth in this core competency area.

I think I am better at critical thinking because I have been able to apply previous knowledge gained from other college courses and knowledge gained from this semester to help me put together projects. For example, the Skidget activity on reserve design helped me decide how to design the Florida Manatee reserve with my group. All of our assignments seemed to build on one another which made it easier to complete group projects.

As for strategic problem solving, I think I have become better at strategizing and solving problems. Although, this semester I felt like I didn’t learn enough new material to formulate original ideas. It seemed as if I was always pulling information from previous assignments in order to add onto different situational activities.

If there is one thing that I value most in this world it would have to be environmental conservation. At the end of the day, I can reflect back on all of the assignments, activities, and field trips I was involved with this semester and know that I can use what I have learned from them to make a positive impact on the environment in the future. This semester has supported my ideals and values for conservation not only in the classroom, but also from being around similar peers. One thing that the living and learning community promotes is a sense of teamwork, something of which is very important to the conservation world. It is extremely difficult to work alone, but when we work together, goals become much more achievable. For instance, look back at our monitoring plan presentations. Through observation, you can tell that each and every group member pulled their weight in whatever way they could and the presentations turned out to be fantastic. No single group may have found the solution to a problem, but take a look at all of the possible solutions that are available now. I value hard work and am pleased to say that I am impressed with the work that other students and my own group members put into their monitoring plans.

Again, I can’t stress how much I believe in group interactions. I think that group work should be incorporated into college classes more often than not and I say this because group interactions are what occur in the work force. You make things harder for yourself and others when you can’t work well within a group. It was difficult trying to get everyone together on the weekends to work on projects, but overall I think all of the groups I worked with did a great job collaborating. At some points a few members were not able to be on campus, but showed allegiance to the group work by communicating to the group through our google docs.

During the semester, we had a couple of graduate programs that were held on campus. It was interesting to see all of the different ethnicities of students within the program. This just goes to show that there is a global understanding of conservation and how it is practiced in other countries too!

I didn’t have the chance to talk to any of the graduate students, but I did talk with some of the guest speakers who came to talk with us during the semester. I added a couple of them on my LinkedIn profile, but overall I found that I didn’t have many networking opportunities pertaining to my fields of interest. I felt like there was too much focus on illegal wildlife trade and animal reproduction networking and no one came to speak to us as a consultant or as an environmental planner. I was somewhat disappointed that there were not enough opportunities for me to network. I would like to suggest that the school asks students for their interests before school starts and to invite guests based on career preferences and goals.

Outside of the classroom and not including any assignments requiring group work, there were some negative effects of being in a living and learning community. At times, I felt like I couldn’t get away from students because there weren’t many places that we are allowed to do work on campus. Activities found in the library were somewhat childish (ex: 20 puzzles) and some of the events were not that intriguing either. I think that in the future a survey should be taken to decide how money gets spent on activities in the library room.

When all is said and done, where do I go from here? I think that through my participation in this program, I have gained a variety of valuable skills that I will be able to use in the future. My interest in conservation has been secured and I definitely plan to implement conservation strategies that we have learned about this semester. The Smithsonian-Mason School of Conservation has not only fostered my growth as a student, but also as an individual.