Hands-on learning in the Herpetology Lab

Herpetology is the study of herpetofauna, which is a really interesting group because they're actually pretty spread out evolutionarily, but it includes amphibians and reptiles. It looks very distinct almost a bit. In this class we cover a lot of things like phylogeny, understanding evolution, how amphibians came about, why they have evolved certain characteristics, whether it's behavior, ecology, diet, the different groups and why they matter, and then ultimately overall conservation. We were focusing on salamanders, so we learned about their body plan and how that can help function and serve them in the wild. So some are more aquatic or terrestrial and they have different features to help them with that. So we want the students to have a foundation and understand how their body and their life history can benefit them and then upon that foundation and build on how they can identify them, both in the classroom and in the wild. I'd say I'm passionate about wildlife in general. What I really want to work with is exotic mammals. It's the reason why I came to college, because this would give me the experience of working with exotic mammals, or at least push me towards a headstone. It makes my day. It makes my week, actually, being able to get to do hands-on stuff. It's fun because I'm still relatively close to where they are now from where I'm at. So it's really interesting to be able to see how I've progressed and how I can take this knowledge and where I think it can be most fitted. I also think I'm in a unique position because I graduated just in May from this department. People are applying to jobs, writing cover letters and finding references and I was just in their shoes and so I feel like I can hopefully be a good resource for them. I think it's extremely beneficial especially for me in points in my life when I've been at my lowest and felt like couldn't continue it's them that make me continue that help me are able to get on my feet and make the best of what I can do and even though sometimes I feel like I'm behind everybody's on their own path and I know I'm walking the path at the pace I'm proud of.