I began my time with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service when I volunteered at Rappahannock River Valley National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) in Warsaw, Virginia at 15 years old. I aided the staff in trail work and was offered a STEP position the following summer as a biological science aid. After being at Rappahannock River Valley NWR for three summers, I was offered a SCEP position in refuge management at Parker River NWR in Newburyport, Massachusetts, and had the pleasure of working with bats at Great Bay NWR using radio telemetry. We worked late hours into the night following bats around the Refuge to calculate home ranges for the two species, and I also led vegetation surveys on the day roosts! The project not only taught me about bats, but I was also able to strengthen my communication skills as I had to coordinate with local landowners to track bats on their adjacent property.
