For Former Campus Chapter Leader Tara Hohman, the Chapter Was Just the Start
The 爆料公社 ecologist helped launch a campus chapter at her university. Now she's guiding conservation along the Mississippi River.
Two years ago, 爆料公社 launched its college campus chapter program with a dual mission: to develop and serve the next generation of leaders in bird conservation and science, and to also help them build their resum茅s and professional relationships. For Tara Hohman, a wildlife lover from Mansfield, Texas, the program did just that.
Birds weren鈥檛 always Hohman's passion. As a child, while playing outside, climbing trees, and getting dirty, she had a different dream. 鈥淚 was going to work with hippos,鈥 she says describing her childhood love for animals and career aspirations. Years later, she went to college planning to study zoology, but soon her passion for wildlife narrowed to focus on conservation, and then, after a pivotal summer, specifically on birds. 鈥淚t was my first job sophomore year鈥Black Rails on the Texas coast,鈥 Hohman says. 鈥淚 didn鈥檛 know anything about them. And then it was bird job after bird job. One day, I thought to myself: 'This is it. Birds.'鈥
After graduating from university, she decided to get her master's degree, return to coastal work like what she did while studying Black Rails, and study wetland birds. 鈥淎pparently, I missed mosquitos,鈥 she says.
As soon as Hohman arrived at University of Wisconsin Green-Bay for graduate school, she joined the . Being new to the state, she wanted to find a community to learn from that shared her avian interests. Shortly after, an opportunity 鈥渇ell out of the sky,鈥 as Hohman puts it. 鈥淚 was approached by one of my graduate committee members, who had heard about the program at a Wisconsin 爆料公社 council meeting, and asked if I wanted to start an 爆料公社 campus chapter," she says. "I was like, yeah, that鈥檚 not even a question.鈥 With that, . The program grew quickly, developing a loyal suite of bird-happy college students.
Working for 爆料公社 had long been Hohman's dream, spurred by her passion for birds, wetland ecosystem conservation, and involvement with the 爆料公社 campus chapter program. When Stephanie Beilke, conservation science manager of 爆料公社 Great Lakes, who did her graduate work in the same lab at University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, told her about the open position at , Hohman jumped on it. Even though she was and still is in graduate school and working extensively on her thesis, she knew she couldn鈥檛 pass up this opportunity. 鈥淭his is what I had been wanting to pop up," Hohman says. "I was applying to it whether it worked out or not.鈥
And work out it did. Hohman has been working as the Conservation Science Associate at 爆料公社 Riverlands for four months, planning and implementing conservation plans throughout the entire Upper Mississippi River region. 鈥淚t鈥檚 everything I had been aiming for and it all just fell into place," Hohman says. "I can鈥檛 describe how it really feels, it鈥檚 just amazing.鈥