Hello everyone! My name is Sammy Baron, and I feel very fortunate to be working as an intern at St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge for the fall of 2022. I am from San Jose, California, which is central to many outdoor spaces and activities. With my parents’ encouragement, I spent my childhood summers hiking the redwood forests of the Santa Cruz Mountains and my winters skiing the snowy slopes of Lake Tahoe. These recreational connections to nature, combined with the environmental ethics integrated throughout my K-12 education, inspired me to have a career in conservation. 

 To reach my goal of becoming an ecologist, I decided to attend the University of Delaware, where I graduated from this past spring. There, I double majored in Wildlife Ecology and Conservation and Insect Ecology and Conservation. Apart from classwork, I tried to get as much technical experience in conservation as possible. For all four years of college, I worked as a research aid for the on-campus USDA Beneficial Insects Introduction Unit, assisting researchers with experiments aiming to control the invasive Asian longhorned beetle. One summer of college I tried my hand at environmental education, working as a camp counselor and backpacking guide at Point Reyes National Seashore. At the University of Delaware I co-founded a club called the Native Species Initiative, in which students volunteered with non-native plant removal at the local state park. In my final summer before graduating college, I surveyed for Northern Spotted Owl and Northern Goshawk presence in Klamath National Forest for the US Forest Service. I also wrote a senior thesis studying jaguarundi occupancy and their ability to live in sympatry with other felids in Panama. 

 These prior experiences have given me opportunities to work with insects, plants, birds, and mammals on the East Coast, West Coast, and abroad, for which I am very grateful. Still, I wanted to broaden my horizons further. I have always wanted to work a field season in Florida because of the unique species diversity, and I had yet to work with amphibians and reptiles. As a result, I seized the opportunity to work at St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge. I am excited to assist in the ongoing field efforts of the Fish and Wildlife Service, especially those that will help conserve the frosted flatwoods salamander. I do not know the location or focal species of my next field technician job, but I am certain my time at St. Marks will direct me to my next career step with the necessary skills and mindset.