UGA Forestry & Natural Resources 2014 Student Profile

Future Student Guide In this guide you’ll find enrollment statistics, student profiles, job outlooks, and ways to get involved in the Warnell community 2014

180 East Green St. Athens, GA 30602 Phone: 706-­‐542-­‐0879 E-­‐Mail: npinnell@uga.edu Web: warnell.uga.edu

S T U DEN TS $125,000

WARNELL SCHOLARSHIPS

$100,000 $75,000 $50,000 $25,000 $0 2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

$2,750,000

WARNELL ASSISTANTSHIPS

$2,200,000 $1,650,000 $1,100,000 $550,000 $0 2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

400

TOTAL ENROLLMENT

320 240 160

Undergraduate

80 Graduate

0

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

ENROLLMENT BY MAJOR PRE-PROFESSIONAL VS. PROFESSIONAL

WARNELL

PreProfessional

Professional

Fisheries and Wildlife

111

110

Natural Resource Recreation & Tourism

12

29

Forestry

28

21

Water & Soil Sciences

9

6

Major

Water & Soil Sciences & Fisheries and Wildlife

1

Forestry & NRRT

1

Forestry & Fisheries and Wildlife

2

2

NRRT & Fisheries and Wildlife

5

Transfers

75 Freshmen

100

ENTERING NEW PROFESSIONALS: UGA SOPHOMORES VS. TRANSFERS FROM OTHER SCHOOLS

TOP

5

FEEDER SCHOOLS

School

# of students

University of North Georgia

19

Georgia Perimeter

6

Kennesaw

6

Georgia College & SU

5

Georgia Southern

5

UndergraduatePROFILE

Erik Biang

The hard work doesn’t stop with Warnell. Biang has worked on the side while attending college classes, first as an aircraft mechanic while at Gordon College, then at the UGA Trial Gardens, and now at the U.S. Forest Service office on campus.

He also just took on another job as a lab teaching assistant for Dr. Richard Daniels’ forest mensuration class. But he and classmate and roommate Carl Della Torre (a Warnell fisheries student) are also renovating the house they’re living in “mostly for fun.” And he does all that in between classes and his extracurricular activities. “I only have a few years of my life here so I want to make the most of it,” Biang said. “I hope to do everything I can here and hope to leave an impact on future students.

Many students attend class and that’s as far as their involvement goes. That’s just not me.”

Biang, 23, is interested in wood harvesting and quality, and he hopes to one day be a private consultant, working with

Photo

by

Sandi Martin

E

rik Biang hadn’t given much thought to forestry when he first started college. The Pike County native fully intended to become a mechanical engineer, but it was a chance encounter with some Warnell School student ambassadors at Gordon College that changed his mind. Visiting his first school to talk about Warnell’s programs, the student ambassadors must have been very convincing: Biang not only transferred to UGA two years ago, but now he’s one of our most active undergraduates. The senior — Biang expects to graduate in December — is a student ambassador himself. He was president of the UGA Forestry Club. He helps teach at the biannual Boy Scouts Advance-a-Ramas Warnell hosts. He calls himself the “most loyal unpaid member of The Wildlife Society,” is in the Xi Sigma Pi honors society, goes to fisheries club meetings and helps out at as many school events as he can. “My first 2 ½ years at school I kept to myself. I went to class, I went to work, and I went home. Before I transferred to Warnell, I decided I will be part of this school, and what better way than to jump in head first?” he said. “I enjoy being part of our school and helping with anything I can.”

harvesting operations to produce high-quality wood products.

“Spending the amount of time in the outdoors that I did as a child helped me to appreciate the outdoors and what we can take from it,” he said. “I have always been one to take things apart to find out how they work — which led me towards the engineering field — but when I found out that most of my time would be spent sitting behind a desk punching in numbers I felt like there might be a better career choice out there for me. My father always told me to do something you enjoy. I remember being in the woods with him as a child just able to walk helping tote firewood to the truck and watching him with a chainsaw bucking up the trees. Those have been some of my favorite memories.

My parents taught me to enjoy and respect the outdoors. I think this has played an important role in my career choice.”

Biang might be one of Warnell and forestry’s biggest boosters.

“I am passionate about my school and I am passionate about forestry and what lies before us in these changing times,” he said.

“At orientation all of the club officers told us to ‘get involved.’ I did, and it has been a very rewarding decision between the lifelong friends I have made here and the potential employers I have met along the way. My words of advice to prospective or new students has been ‘get involved’ and to be the person that wants to know more and do more than the 8 to 5 lifestyle.”

UndergraduatePROFILE

Lauren Cameron L

auren Cameron’s not done with his undergraduate degree, but he’s already looking to the future. The 21-year-old junior is already thinking of studying exotoxicology in graduate school once he earns his BSFR in water and soils. But Cameron’s not adverse to hard work. The Indiana native is putting himself through school, carries a full class load, has two jobs and helps support his mother and three younger brothers.

It can be easy to fall behind, Cameron said, but he works hard to keep up with everything, even if it means sacrificing personal time with friends or hobbies and school clubs. “I make it work,” he said. “I still manage to make good grades and have fun. I have also started working out every day to help destress.” Cameron’s mother, Renee, gets the credit, he said. “My mother always taught me to have a strong work ethic, and she would only be satisfied if I did my very best. And I have been a hard worker as a result.”

Cameron’s determined to put that same work ethic to use in both school and his ultimate career. He said he’s wanted to work in the environmental field since high school, when a physics teacher encouraged him to compete in regional, photo by

Sandi Martin

state and national science fairs. While competing in the Georgia Junior Science and Humanities Symposium and as an International Sustainable World Energy Engineering Environment Project Olympiad, he worked on alternative fuel projects: one comparing the physical properties of biodiesel to gasoline and the other where he made biodiesel from algae.

It really sparked his interest in water contamination issues.

“Doing science competitions really got me into the environmental field,” he said. “I chose water and soil resources because I am interested in pollution control and mitigation, and this major is the most closely related to my goals.”

When he’s not driving a campus bus or tutoring underprivileged kids in Athens through A-to-Z In-Home Tutoring, Cameron tries to find time for his mixed martial arts or watches anime. Once he finishes his undergraduate degree, Cameron plans to earn his master’s degree at UGA and stay near his family in Moultrie, Ga., “because of logistic reasons. I have two well-paying jobs and it would be difficult to find jobs that pay as well somewhere else. Also, my mother has poor health, and I already live four hours away from home as it is. So I’m not really planning on going too far. Plus, I love Athens.”

Spring 2011 19

UndergraduatePROFILE

Michelle Webber

M

ichelle Webber is what you might call “passionate.” Others might call it fearless, or strong determination. You might also say she’s OK with getting a little dirty out in the wild and moving to poor countries with none of the amenities Americans take for granted. She hikes, she kayaks and she enjoys every minute of it. Over Christmas later this year, she and some friends will be rafting and kayaking down the Grand Canyon River — for 25 days, camping on the shores. And one day she plans to go overseas to work with deaf individuals in developing countries for the Peace Corps. Education is her passion, she says, but she won’t limit herself to a life spent indoors. “I want to experience my life to the fullest,” she insists. “I want to see the world, as much of it as I can, and what I’m lucky enough to see in that time will be just right for me.”

Webber will graduate in May and is contemplating graduate school, with the plan of one day teaching at the college level. But she’s not sure she wants to jump into another degree program right away. “I’m too unfocused right now,” she says. But she has definite plans, and those plans include sign language and the Peace Corps with her future husband. “My sign language classes taught me the difficulties that deaf individuals face in poor communities,” Webber says. “Deaf is seen as ‘dumb’ and many deaf people in such situations lack education or training that would allow them to become functioning members of their societies — often an isolating experience.

“That sucks, so let’s do something about it!” she exclaims.

“I have a passion for education and sign language, so I’ve decided to put them to good use somewhere. Oh, and you can serve with your spouse! How cool is that?” So that’s what they’re planning to do. She and Kevin McDonnell (BSFR ‘10) met during an internship with the U.S. Forest Service, and they plan to be married in the near future.

Their applications for the Peace Corps can take a year, but once they’re accepted they’ll be posted together, she says.

Her four forest service internships didn’t just land her a fiancé, either. They’re also what brought her to the Warnell School. Originally matriculating at Boston University, the

photos courtesy of

Michelle Webber

Rhode Island native was toiling away in geology classes, staring at rocks under microscopes and spending a lot of time indoors. A summer internship with the forest service “out in the woods, getting paid to hike or ride a mule every day” made her realize that “it was time to switch majors.” McDonnell helped steer her to Warnell, and she’s never looked back. “I’m not sure why I feel so connected to the natural world,” she says. “Perhaps it’s part instinct, part upbringing, and maybe some nostalgia thrown in there. My parents brought me up with that phrase, ‘go play outside, I’ll see you at dinner time,’ and I wasn’t coming in ‘til the street lights turned on. Coupled with ever-increasing urbanization and a home state that ranks No. 2 in the nation for population density, I’ve found that nature feeds my soul like nothing else.”

UndergraduatePROFILE

Hayley Glassic H

ayley Glassic didn’t quite believe it when one of her professors told her that Alaska would change her life. One day in the country’s biggest state changed her mind. There for a job working with a salmon hatchery, Glassic got an eye-opening tutorial on aquaculture that has helped shape her perspective on farm-grown salmon. “There were many times when I thought the hatchery managers or the staff was doing things not best for the salmon, but there were so many other influences to the decisions that they made from both the public and the government,” Glassic said. Once interested in one day becoming a hatchery manager, Glassic said the Alaska job ultimately convinced her that she should rethink her career path. “I know that aquaculture leads to reduced genetic diversity and can negatively impact wild salmon stocks,” Glassic said. “That is unfortunately a consequence of any aquaculture, and I would much rather spend my career managing salmon for natural reproduction and population growth, not supplementing population with hatchery fish.”

The 21-year-old Woodstock native is instead looking forward to attending graduate school once she earns her BSFR from Warnell. She is particularly interested in mathematical models and their application to management strategies, and it’s not just

because math is a universal language that can be applied to any animal or environment. “I have always loved math and the fact that it has answers in black and white,” she said. “There is never a correct answer in managing our environment; it is a grey area which can constantly change as more factors or stakeholders are introduced. I think that applying mathematical models and projecting them into the future can give us another more stable perspective of how to execute management strategies.”

Glassic plans to graduate in December and says she would like to work for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service one day, but until then she’s enjoying her work with Ecology’s Dr. Byron Freeman comparing the DNA of black bass before and after museum preservation. Glassic was originally a biology major but switched her freshman year after seeing a flyer at orientation for the fisheries and wildlife major. She changed on the spot, she said. “It was probably one of the best decisions of my life,” she said. “Being in Warnell is like being included into a family.

The relationships you forge with your professors and the other students in your classes make you feel like you’re in the right place. I don’t think there are many schools at UGA that are as close-knit and involved with their students as Warnell and that’s one of the main reasons I love this school.”

photo courtesy of

Hayley Glassic

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aniel Atkins thought he knew what he was getting into when he enrolled at the Warnell School. “Go to class, pay attention, memorize notes, pass exam,” he said. Most schools at UGA teach you to do one thing, he said: Pass tests. But he quickly learned that Warnell was “one of a kind,” and certainly not what he expected. “The goal of every teacher is to prepare you to be a leader within your chosen profession,” Atkins said. “The faculty and staff at Warnell is top tier, second to none in their backgrounds, experience, and overwhelming desire to mold young professionals into future leaders of our natural resources.”

They’re also determined to help students find jobs.

Atkins, who earned his BSFR in 2012 and is now wrapping up his master’s degree in forest resources, has had three internships, the latest with Plum Creek Timber Company.

And he credits the people working behind the scenes at Warnell with helping him land all three — and the fulltime job that awaits him. “Because of the time and effort the Warnell staff put in, I seized an opportunity and was hired full-time at the completion of my academic career,” he said.

College students — and their parents — are understandably concerned about job prospects once graduation rolls around, as the United States’ unemployment rate has been tied to the rocky economy. And while a college degree at one time all but guaranteed employment, that’s not the case anymore, with the percentage of college graduates out of work hovering around the national unemployment rate.

Although other colleges on campus try to help students find jobs post-graduation, Warnell has been stepping up its efforts to put jobs and employment opportunities out there — it’s just up to students to take advantage of it all.

Warnell may be one of the few colleges on campus who has student services staff members dedicated to helping students find jobs — and that’s before professors and alumni relations and graduate student staff get involved.

And the list of what they do is long. Warnell’s student services staff sends out information about internships, post job openings on Warnell’s job board, hold professional

development workshops and classes, and encourage students to join the professional societies — all year long.

Staff members will even look at a student’s — or alumnus’ — resume and give advice on how to improve it.

Even better, they also recruit alumni to mentor current students and bring employers, who are often alumni, here to recruit for jobs. Networking, said Student and Career Services Coordinator Ami Flowers, is absolutely key to landing a job after graduation, and every year she urges students to attend Roundtable. Held every year by the student chapter of the Society of American Foresters, Roundtable is a popular networking event where students can meet the professionals out in the field now who may be looking to hire. If a student isn’t taking advantage of all of Warnell’s job-related services, Flowers said, they’re missing out. “Their tuition funds the student services staff, which is put in place for them to use,” Flowers said. “We are free to them, so if they’re not taking advantage of it they are not taking advantage of the benefits of attending a major university. We are literally here for them.”

Will Burge certainly took notice. Last spring, the senior said, it hit home that he really needed some experience on his resume. He’d wanted to do an internship the summer before that, but had to take a class. Staff members like Flowers, Burge said, are pretty persistent in letting students know about internships and jobs, which include frequent email reminders, so it was hard to ignore what was literally “right at your fingertips.” So Burge took advantage of it, and landed a part-time job at the Westervelt Company in Statesboro. He’s cruising timber, working with GPS

and doing office work two days a week until he graduates in December with his BSFR. After that, he said, he plans to attend graduate school, possibly in Maine. “Internships are very beneficial, and it exposes you to the field of study, and it’s very practical,” Burge said. “In class you are learning about the concepts, but with internships, you’re tying it all together.”

Kristen Black, a junior from Peachtree City, is already thinking about helping herself get hired after she graduates in the fall of 2015 with a degree in wildlife. She recently attended the Southeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies as a student worker, networking for four days with potential future employers and seeking out advice. And she’s already applying for internships for next summer, even if it means missing out on an optional field course, because that’s what’s going to help her land a job, she said. “What are my future employers going to look for?” she asked. “A field course or an internship?”

A recent study proves the importance of internships. Although the unemployment rate for college graduates over the past several years has hovered as high as the 10 percent mark, some degrees are worth more in the job market than others, according to a recent study by Georgetown University. The study found that In Warnell, the one major that practically guarantees employment graduates holding degrees in agriculture and natural resources, is forestry. “We have more forestry jobs than we have students,” as well as those in the sciences, had better luck finding jobs than Flowers said. Emily Saunders, Warnell’s those in other fields — and those unemalumni relations and student leadership ployment numbers dropped considerably director, agreed. “Most forestry majors with experience and graduate degrees. A NATURAL RESOURCES – can easily get a job in forestry as a forrecent graduate in agriculture and natuAGRICULTURE GRADUATES ester — whether it’s pursuing an MFR in ral resources, for instance, would fall into UNEMPLOYMENT RATES * forest business and working in a high rise a group with 6.1 percent unemployment in Atlanta or managing forestlands as a rate. Add in experience, and that number 6.1% recent graduates consultant. Our forestry majors are very drops to 3.4 percent. With a graduate 3.4% with experience marketable, especially if they are willing degree, the rate drops to 2.3 percent.

2.3% with graduate degree to travel.”

“Employers like to see applicants who have a degree in their discipline but also *Georgetown University study, 2013 Many of Warnell’s forestry undergraduhave first-hand experience in the field as ates do seek out a master’s degree, and well,” Flowers said. “Internships allow that works out to their benefit, particuyou to gain that professional experience while you are pursuing larly if they earn an MFR through the Center for Forest Business. your degree. That study proves what we’ve known all along — “The Center for Forest Business has compiled an enviable track internships are essential to getting hired.” record in graduate placement,” said Bob Izlar, director of the CFB. “Since the Center’s founding in 1997 and even before, we have been able to place 99 percent of our forest business graduate students in jobs. Many have had multiple job offers even before graduation. This speaks to the regard with which

POST-GRADUATION PLANS FOR WARNELL STUDENTS our degree program and graduates are held.

At a recent meeting, I heard the cadre of our forest business alumni in the timberland investment world referred to as the ‘Warnell mafia.’ I take that as a complement to our efforts. It is a reflection of dedicated faculty and staff, an active advisory committee and supportive employers.”

2012 UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS * 32.94% Looking for employment

Michael Westbrook (BSFR ’05, MS ‘08), the Atlantic Region Manager for the Westervelt Company, has come back to Warnell to recruit future potential employees. Warnell students, he said, certainly have an advantage — although he admits to being biased toward his alma mater. The recruitment of alumni to be mentors is a huge benefit to both student and alumni, he said. “I think alumni mentoring is a great way for students to gain insight into business, but also a great way for alumni to see the continued growth of their school,” Westbrook said. “Higher education has allowed alumni to become the person they are today and where they are today, so I think it is important they stay involved.

The school we graduated from was defined by those who graduated before us, so we must refine it for those who graduate next.”

2012 GRADUATE STUDENTS * 40% Job secured

21.18% Attending grad school

51% Looking, travelling or undecided

29.41% 16.47% Found temporary/ Found seasonal permanent jobs jobs *Based on 85 survey responses, two weeks prior to graduation

9% Getting PhD/ postdoctoral

*Graduate student exit interviews conducted during last semester

Warnell encourages its students to pursue internship opportunities during the summer to gain valuable field experience---some internships even lead to full-time positions or research opportunities in graduate school.

The accompanying graph indicates the number of students enrolled in the Warnell Internship and Practicum Course (Fanr3900/3910) for the past nine years and show the distribution by career field. Note: The graph does not reflect students who had summer internships, but chose not to enroll in the course.

Number of students enrolled in FANR 3900/3910

INTERNSHIPS BY CAREER FIELD 40

**

Interdisciplinary

35

Water & Soil NRRT

30

Fisheries & Wildlife

25

Forestry

20 15 10 5 0

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

Academic Year

2011

2012

2013

Go Dawgs, Sic(k) ‘em!

The UGA Forestry Club didn’t mean to take the Bulldogs battle cry literally, but at the 2014 Southern Forestry Conclave at Virginia Tech in March nearly the entire team fell ill with a stomach bug. Despite that setback, the team still placed in the top five in overall competition, and team members continued the Timberdawgs’ tradition of taking high honors in individual contests.

The student chapter of The Wildlife Society avoided illness when they drove over to Clemson University for the annual Southeastern Wildlife Conclave — and once again they dominated the field, taking 1st place in the overall team competition, 1st place in Quiz Bowl, and 1st place in the team field competition. Several students also made Warnell proud by taking top honors in individual contests.

Individual award winners:

UGA Forestry Club 2nd in Women’s Crosscut: Robin Studdard and Chandler Lipham 2nd in Wildlife: Nicki Price and Cody Dunagan 2nd in Log Roll: Shane Mathews and Blake Sherry 3rd in Underhand Chop and 5th in Stihl Man Competition: Team Captain Robert Dangle

Photos

courtesy of the T imberdawgs and

Wildlife Club

The Wildlife Society Student Chapter 1st in Radio Telemetry: Tyler Gagat and Sonia Vail 1st in Fly Casting: Trevor Moncrief 1st in Painting: Emily Jennings 2nd in Free Form Art: Emily Jennings 3rd in Dendrology: Vic Anderson 3rd in Lab Practicum: Ryan Pemberton