Travel, travel, and more travel!

As an FLCC student, I often got amazing

opportunities to work “in the field”

with live wildlife. Photo credit: John Van Niel

As a student at Finger Lakes Community College, I was very fortunate to be able to participate in an undergraduate research study about black bear marking behaviors.

Coincidentally, a professor at FLCC, Jim Hewlett, wrote a grant to the National Science Foundation several years ago. In I believe 2011, FLCC was granted approximately $3.5 million dollars to start up the Community College Undergraduate Research Initiative.

This was VERY exciting news for FLCC, but the grant has touched students at community colleges across the country. There are the 5 Original Regional Partners, 26 other Partners, and 4 New Regional Collaborators from New York to Hawaii, from Washington State to the Florida Keys. Check out the CCURI Partner Page to learn all about what kind of research CCURI students are participating in!

I’ve been able to present my study of these black bear behaviors several times over the past 2 years. I started out with local conferences: the 38th Rochester Academy of Science Paper Session, the 7th Annual Finger Lakes Research Conference, and the 3rd Annual State University of New York’s Undergraduate Research Symposium. Then I attended my first regional conference, the Northeastern Natural History Conference. I was receiving great feedback, people were interested in what I was learning about, and I felt I have a valid topic to share with other scientists.

This year I applied to, and was accepted to, the National Conference of Undergraduate Research (NCUR) in La Crosse, Wisconsin. I also was invited to attend our grant, CCURI’s, first national conference which was held in Bethesda, Maryland.

Learning about bears was always fun for me, so it amazes me that I just returned from 2 national conferences, and actually while I was in Wisconsin, I was applying for another one! I hope to present at the National Wildlife Society Conference being held in Milwaukee this fall.

My study poster, which I use when presenting.

Attending these conferences, whether there are 150 people like there was at the Finger Lakes Research Conference, or 3,500 people like at NCUR, is always exciting. I love to meet people. I also love sharing what I’ve been learning, as well as learning about what other students are up to across New York State, the region, and the country!



Presenting at Montgomery Community College in Maryland. March 2013. Photo credit: Michael Blocker



Presenting at the University of Wisconsin at La Crosse. April 2013. Photo credit: Melissa Miller

 

CCURI and FLCC representatives at NCUR!
Melissa Miller (FLCC student), Michael McIntyre (FLCC student),
Dr. Beth VanWinkle (CCURI Project Director), and myself (FLCC alumni).

I know this isn’t a very exciting wildlife entry, I just wanted to share what I’m up to when I’m NOT in the field playing with bear cubs or camera traps! It’s exciting to be involved with something “bigger than myself”. I can not thank enough the CCURI team: Jim, Beth, Heather, and of course John. What you do, plus all of the other “staff” at other colleges, are doing, are amazing and progressive things for those of us who got our start at the humble community college.

(PLUS...I got to meet Trailblazer, and some of his amazing students!)

CCURI and NCUR

I know, that's a lot of letters. I'm in a bit of a lull with camera trapping and other fun projects, so I thought I'd share these exciting upcoming events with the Blog World.

Myself and a male black bear in Addison, NY
February 2012. Photo credit: John Van Niel

While I was a student at Finger Lakes Community College in Western, NY I was able to participate in a truly unique course titled "Black Bear Management". For my entire life I have been infatuated with black bears. I will admit that up until 3 years ago, my infatuation was totally based on looks. I was shallow. Bears of all sorts are so darn cute!

But since participating in this class, I've grown to love them for what's inside. And what they do. And how they do it! Black bears are relatively common in NY. They are not found at an even dispersement across the state, and you are not able to hunt them just everywhere yet. But, they are conspicuous and pretty darn cool. So when they ARE around, you know it.

The one part of BBM that I want to share briefly is this project of studying a particular marking behavior that black bears do. If you'd like more information on the specifics, see here and here.

Through a grant that jim Hewlett, a faculty member at FLCC wrote, the Community College Undergraduate Research Initiative through the National Science Foundation was born. CCURI has been influencing undergrads across the nation for the past 2 years, and I was lucky enough to attend the homebase college. CCURI funded not only the class, but funded a trip for my class to attend an area in Massachusetts where these marking behaviors were being documented by a couple of researchers. After that trip, the professor of the course, John, was so excited about what we were learning that he urged us to put a presentation together to share it with others. I ended up being the only student left that following semester (Fall 2011) because everyone else had graduated. That's the problem with community colleges...high rate of turnover! Since that summer, I've presented at the:

·         38^th Rochester Academy of Science Paper Session, Monroe Community College, Henrietta, New York, October 29, 2011

·         7^th Annual Finger Lakes Research Conference. Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Geneva, New York, November 19,2011 (Awarded Best Student Poster)

·         3^rd Annual State University of New York’s Undergraduate Research Symposium, Empire State Plaza, Albany, New York, February 19, 2012



·         Northeastern Natural History Conference, OnCenter, Syracuse, New York, April 16, 2012



From left to right: Barb Dagata, the SUNY Chancellor Nancy Zimpher,

Courtney Stein, and myself at the SUNY Undergraduate Research Syposium.

February 2012 - Photo credit: Beth Van Winkle 

And NOW I'm excited to share that I was asked to attend CCURI's very own national conference this coming March in Washington, DC! I will not only be presenting my poster, but I will be speaking to a group of students about the struggles and triumphs I've experienced as an undergraduate researcher in a community college. Even though I am no longer at FLCC, those 2 years were the best of my life so far and that is largely because of the opportunities I was presented as a student.

Also, back in November, I applied for the National Conference of Undergraduate Research (NCUR) which is being held in La Crosse, WI. I, along with 2 other FLCC students have been accepted to present our work. Melissa is presenting on work she's done in the caribbean monitoring coral reef degradation, and Michael is presenting on methods of river otter scat preservation for future DNA testing. We are all honored and excited to rub elbows with other undergraduates at this prestigous event!

 

I have one possibly two more events coming up this year that I will be presenting at. One has not been announced yet, and so I'm going to jinx myself and share that...just yet. The other is the National Wildlife Society Conference being held this October in Milwaukee, WI.

 

I have a lot of exciting things coming up, and I'm very thankful to have these opportunities available to me.