My Experiences at AU
This is one of the first times I actively studied habitat loss/conservation work for a class and it wasn't even for a science class, it was for my English class that semester. We got to pick our own topic for an informative essay, and it ended up being one of my favorite pieces of work I did my freshman year, and really opened the door to me for conservation work, and opened my eyes to the problems our planet is facing.
For my ecology class, we were assigned to create our own study and perform our own experience over the course of the semester. It was my first introduction to long-term scientific studies, and specifically long term field research, which I absolutely fell in love with. I found the local salamander species to be absolutely fascinating, and it sparked my interest in field research.
This was my presentation for my senior seminar at Auburn. This was potentially one of the most fascinating papers I had ever read, and getting the chance to present it in a way that helped others see it with the same intrigue as me was an incredible feeling. This is also very close to the type of long term study I would love to be a part of someday, so to see the outcome of a study like this was incredibly inspiring.
While researching conservation for a while, Colossal Biosciences and the concept of de-extinction came up for than once. I found it absolutely fascinating, and to this day it is still one of my favorite examples of "outside the box" thinking when it comes to conservation work. Since it is so controversial, I decided to make this informational pamphlet to help explain the concept and benefits to people who may not be as familiar with the concepts.
In the summer of 2025, I got the chance to intern with GVI, and do real conservation work studying their local Asian Elephants and Lar Gibbons. Part of the interning process was presenting on "controversial conservation methods" so of course I thought it was a great reason to revisit my favorite topic of de-extinction. While this isn't the most technically impressive presentation I've put together, it is my favorite to this day because not only was it my chance to inform people about a topic I was passionate about, it was a chance to genuinely field a semi-casual discussion that would allow people to develop a similar interest.
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