The last time I was at Nachusa, I was in elementary school. Back then, we called it \u201cthe buffalo place\u201d. Cue Hannah Montana, \u201cYou\u2019ll Always Find Your Way Back Home\u201d. I have changed a lot since Monroe Center Elementary took a field trip out to see the Lee County buffalo. I think at that point I was still riding the \u201cI want to be an astronaut when I grow up\u201d phase, or it was an actor. My parents tell me that my all-time favorite movie when I was younger was Enemy at the Gates, which is a WWII film about Russia\u2019s miliary strategy. Jude Law must have really inspired me. Anyway, when I first stepped foot on the Nachusa grass, I did not have veterinarian, let alone scientist, in mind. I\u2019m sure I had dreams of college, but definitely not Carleton.
I could probably make a PowerPoint presentation about all of the character crisis I have had since my first Nachusa visit. Understanding what wildlife conservation research is really about would absolutely make the list. I used to always think that scientists cook up crazy potions in a lab and never see the sun. They definitely did not roam the fields looking for turtles to swab. I didn\u2019t know of any scientists in Ogle or Lee County, and I assumed that anyone with a PhD had aspirations to be a fancy professor. After getting older and expirencing the vast world of research and realzing that my ideas were rather far off, I am happiest counting eggs or searching for solutions to the environment\u2019s problems. I feel lucky to have full circled back to Nachusa, still as a buffalo admirer, but also as a female scientist. I am beyond excited for what the week will hold. Nothing is better than this.<\/p>\n
-Maris<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The last time I was at Nachusa, I was in elementary school. Back then, we called it \u201cthe buffalo place\u201d. Cue Hannah Montana, \u201cYou\u2019ll Always Find Your Way Back Home\u201d. I have changed a lot since Monroe Center Elementary took a field trip out to see the Lee County buffalo. I think at that point […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":969,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vetmed.illinois.edu\/wel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vetmed.illinois.edu\/wel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vetmed.illinois.edu\/wel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vetmed.illinois.edu\/wel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/969"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vetmed.illinois.edu\/wel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5385"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vetmed.illinois.edu\/wel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5385\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5386,"href":"https:\/\/vetmed.illinois.edu\/wel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5385\/revisions\/5386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vetmed.illinois.edu\/wel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vetmed.illinois.edu\/wel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vetmed.illinois.edu\/wel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}