Wild Encounters Prepared Alumna for Zoo Job
Nikki Maticic ’14 earned her stripes – and a UMW biology degree – after impactful study abroad trips to South Africa and the Galápagos Islands. She’s now an animal keeper at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo. Photo courtesy of Nikki Maticic.
Cage diving with great white sharks. Swimming alongside humpback whales. Getting close to lions and leopards on an African safari.
It sounds like a nature TV show, but it’s not. It’s how Nikki Maticic ’14 spent one summer break as a Mary Washington student.
Now she cares for lions, tigers and Andean bears – oh, my! – as well as farm animals at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo. Her dream job as an animal keeper became a reality thanks to a UMW biology degree and study abroad trips to South Africa and the Galápagos Islands. Read more.
In celebration of International Education Week 2019, Nov. 18 to 22, UMW shares stories of students who have studied abroad. One in three Mary Washington students volunteers, interns, conducts research, or joins a faculty-led trip or other UMW-approved experience outside the United States, according to Center for International Education (CIE) Director Jose Sainz. Visit CIE or call (540) 654-1434 for more information.
Nikki Maticic swam with giant tortoises during her study abroad trip to the Galápagos Islands. Photo by Nikki Maticic.
Smithsonian Partnership Lets Students Explore Endangered Species
Thanks to a new partnership with the Smithsonian-Mason School of Conservation, Mary Washington students will soon have the opportunity to study clouded leopards and other endangered species with Smithsonian scientists. Photo by Evan Cantwell/George Mason University.
Imagine getting up close and personal with the world’s most endangered species – and then having the chance to save them.
Thanks to a partnership with the Smithsonian-Mason School of Conservation (SMSC), Mary Washington students will soon have that experience. They’ll spend a semester working directly with these animals and learning from Smithsonian scientists and George Mason University professors at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, nestled at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The agreement comes just as UMW’s biology department introduces a new major in conservation biology. Read more.
O’Dell Connects Cell Phones, Cancer on ‘With Good Reason’
UMW Associate Professor of Biology Deb O’Dell will be featured on “Do Cell Phones Cause Cancer?” on the With Good Reason public radio show. Her interview, which took place last August, is an encore presentation and will air August 3 to 9. The program is broadcast in Fredericksburg on Radio IQ 88.3 Digital on Sundays […]Waters Featured in Inside Higher Ed on Technology-Enabled Learning
Assistant Professor Biology Parrish Waters
Assistant Professor of Biology Parrish Waters was featured in an article in Inside Higher Ed entitled “Looking Back on this Year’s Classroom Experiments.” In a previous article from last fall, professors across the country shared the technologies they were planning on testing in the classroom; now they reflect on their successes and shortcomings. According to the recent article, Waters said that he tried “encouraging student engagement with help from a formative assessment tool, which he’d used in the classroom previously, but without a cohesive strategy.” Read more.
No Brainer: UMW Biology Alum in Prestigious Neuroscience Program
Biology Professors Publish Paper in Virginia Journal of Science
Deborah O’Dell, associate professor of biological sciences, and Andrew Dolby, professor of biological sciences, have had their paper, “A Comparison of Techniques Measuring Stress in Birds,” published in the Virginia Journal of Science.
This paper was co-authored with former UMW Biology students Michael A. Carlo, Abigail Kimmitt, Ellen Bikowski and Katherine R. Morris
