Nature Reach program a great experience for biology students

Key Takeaways:

• Nature Reach is a hands-on experience for biology students.
• This program not only trains students but also teachers.

Pittsburg State University’s Nature Reach program provides opportunities for biology students to get first-hand experience in their field and to learn what it takes to take care of animals and nature.

Delia Lister, the director of Nature Reach, said the program is an educational outreach program out of the biology department. It has been managed by Pitt State’s biology department since 1985.

“We work with collage students who have an interest in working with animals or doing nonformal education as part of their career,” Lister said. “I have a student staff of about six to eight students, and we also work with the Broadway Animal Hospital with the three vets there that are the ones that help offer their services to the program.”

Students interested in joining the Nature Reach program have to pass an interview and be enrolled in a special course. Lister said they have to understand how to do their work and must agree to participate in staff meetings every week.

“I take care of the animals,” Sharon Caballero, a student at Pitt State and volunteer for the Nature Reach program, said. “I’m in charge in making sure they have water and food. If they in any case have to take medication I have to make sure they are taking it.”

Caballero said that once students are accepted into the program, they start off as a volunteers and go through training. If everything goes well, they then get join the team as official staff members.

Through their work, students gain experience for their degree and future careers.

“College students get hands-on experience that they wouldn’t get elsewhere, and they develop a whole skill set, from record keeping to handling animals to understanding a little bit about the process we have go through to get our state and federal permit,” Lister said.

Caballero added that through Lister and other professors who are also part of the program, students can also get internships and jobs in other places with programs similar to Nature Reach.

Nature Reach is not only for college students that are part of the biology department. The program also offers summer camp programs for kids in which they get to learn about and interact with animals.

Lister said the program also visits schools, does live animal programming and helps train teachers.

“Many students that are coming up now have seen a Nature Reach program when they were in grade school or middle school,” Lister said. “One of the students that I will hopefully bring on in the fall is a first-time college student that attended my camps all through her elementary school and even as a helper, and now she is interested in field biology.”