Ben, Starting Out

From Lab Bench to Rainforest

My name is Ben Schoenberg and I’m a Senior undergraduate student at UCLA, majoring in Biology with a minor in Biomedical Research. This Winter quarter I’ve been selected to participate in a glorious opportunity which involves traveling to Nicaragua and performing field biology research.

Future sports medicine physician or world-traveling biologist? I hope to answer this question at the end of my field biology quarter experience. I’m excited to gain a better understanding of research in a field environment after spending 1.5 years in a stem cell lab on campus. But almost more than that—I can’t wait for the day in and day out activities in Nicaragua. Canoeing up the local river, searching for slippery frogs of all shapes and sizes, and really getting my hands dirty. A venomous snake experience would be very cool too, although at a distance of about 10 meters of course. I’m also looking forward to being part of this trip with a group and communicating our stories and discoveries to each other. I’ve never traveled to such a remote part of the world, especially one that’s a biodiversity hotspot and can only imagine the mysterious creatures I’m going to encounter. Furthermore, getting off the grid and truly disconnecting from social media and email is definitely something I’m looking forward too.

In terms of academic goals I aspire to come back with a new dedication towards conservation biology, with the goal of making a positive impact in the field. Whether that involves direct research, increased public awareness, or spreading cute pictures of spider monkeys playing. Finally, I’m looking forward to gaining practical skills in developing experiments to test and recording results. I’ve never used the statistical software “R” before and feel it could be a useful tool in analyzing data.

Lindsey, Starting Out

And So It Begins

First of all, hello! Welcome. Thank you for spending the time to read about this brief but exhilarating adventure I am about to embark on. My name is Lindsey and I’m a third year studying Ecology, Behavior and Evolution at UCLA. What do I want to do with that may you ask? I’m not entirely sure, but more on that later. This quarter I am partaking in a course in which students plan and carry out research on a subject of their choice in a tropical rainforest in southeastern Nicaragua.

Since I have known that I would be participating in this program I’ve been showered with questions from friends and family. Where exactly will you be? What are you going to be researching? Is this something you want to pursue after college? The intimidating reality that came about was that my answer to most questions was “I have no idea.” I knew the general area we would be traveling to, Refugio Bartola in Nicaragua, but what exactly that area consists of I was unsure. As for the research, our course is set up where we pick, as individuals or groups, a study topic or organism that we then get to collect data on in the field for three weeks. This can be exhilarating but overwhelming to think about. Tropical rainforests are the most biodiverse environments on earth; how am I to choose just one organism to study? And as for the question that I have been asked infinitely since I was a kid, “What do you want to do when you grow up?” or as I see it “What in the world do you want to do with your life when you graduate college?” It is a daunting thought. I currently think I want to go into environmental management, but this trip will hopefully give me some much welcomed insight into what field research is like and if this could be something I could spend my life being passionate about.

After months of being filled with the questions of others and my own, here we are at the present day and a majority of those questions have, to which I am very thankful, been answered. I will be staying close to the border of Costa Rica along the Rio San Juan. What I am going to study has yet to be decided, but I will be creating two separate research projects of which I will plan throughout the next few weeks, possibly even while at the site. There is so much that I am looking forward to in the coming months. I don’t often think much about my surroundings, I’ve lived in California my entire life, but there are so many other environments out there that I cannot even begin to imagine. I am going to travel to a place 100% different than Los Angeles, full of different species that are utterly new to me, and that excites me.

Jeff, Starting Out

Contemplating Careers: Medical School or Ecology?

Hello! I am Jeff Wood, and I am a fourth year ecology, behavior, and evolution major at UCLA. My main goal for my trip to Nicaragua is very simple.  I want to be able to go to nature to be able to explore nature and fulfill my lifelong dream of traveling to a rainforest. I grew up watching people such as Steve Irwin and Jeff Corwin on the television and always wanted to do what hey do, but having grown up in Southern California, I never had the opportunity to do so. I did take the occasional trip to national parks such as Yellowstone and Yosemite, but I never really was able to experience nature to the level that I wanted to. While in Nicaragua, I hope that I will be able to have some moments where I will just be able to sit by myself and just contemplate about life. I know this may sound a bit cliché, but it is something that I have always wanted to do. I have also never been out of the country before, so this will also be a good opportunity for me to get some much needed traveling experience. My mom is terrified of me going, but if I accomplish this goal and the two others that I am going to describe, I think that she will think that this whole experience will have been worthwhile. However, if I get malaria or something, she will definitely never forgive me, but my stories about having the disease will still be pretty cool!

A second goal that I have been thinking of is that I want to be able to conduct research on something that I am very interested in. There are so many different kinds of plants and animals that live in the rainforest, so I am bound to find something that I am passionate about studying. I do not have a very clear idea of exactly what I want to do research on while I am in Nicaragua, but from what I have researched on my own and learned in classes, I am leaning towards something with hummingbirds. At my family home in Chino Hills, California, my family has recently installed hummingbird feeders that attract many individuals daily. My family and I derive great joy from watching the birds’ interactions, which are mostly aggressive. There are many different species of hummingbirds in Nicaragua, so I am hoping that I will be able to view enough to be able to get some good data.

This trip will also allow me to have a clearer idea of what I want to do with my career. I am currently a premed, and since it is my fourth year I will be applying to medical school very soon. The thing is, my childhood passion for ecology has not diminished at all. This has left me with a bit of a dilemma. There are so many routes that I will be able to take in my career for both of these routes, but the time to officially decide what I am going to do is rapidly approaching. I hope to use this quarter as a way to help me make this extremely important decision. While my parents are set on me becoming a physician, I really want to explore all of my options while I still have the opportunity to do so. The future is very important to me, and I want to do something I know I will enjoy.

Emily, Starting Out

In Search of a Sloth

Hi All! My name is Emily, and I am a 3rd year Bio major at UCLA. This quarter I am embarking on a new journey: traveling and conducting research through the rainforests of Nicaragua. I feel tremendously lucky to have this opportunity and I want to invite you all to also come on this journey with me! In this blog, you will get it all: posts about my scientific findings, photos of all the animals and plants I encounter, my personal thoughts, any and every random fact I learn, and an inside scoop of what really happens during the trip.

Before I jump on the plane and then go on a 3 hour bus ride followed by a 4 hour ride down the river to finally reach Refugio Bartola, it’ll be a good idea to begin with my goals for this trip.

Growing up in Ecuador, family trips to the Amazon was something I always looked forward to. After many years, I’m finally able to go back into the rainforest! I’ve never been to Nicaragua so one of my personal goals would be to speak to the locals and learn a little more about my surroundings.

On a different note, I am looking forward to exploring as much of Refugio Bartola as possible. I want to walk every trail, paddle down the river, and see as much of the biodiversity this amazing place has to offer. I’m crossing my fingers that I will run into a sloth! I hope I will get the chance to admire this slow-moving animal in action and get a couple of really good pictures. Although this is aiming a little high since there haven’t been many sloth sightings in the recent years, I hope luck will be on my side.

I’ve never traveled with a group of individuals who are just as passionate about the wild as me so as you can imagine, I am ecstatic that 15 other people will be joining me on this journey! This leads me to my next goal: to learn at least 1 thing from each and every single one of my peers and at least return from this trip with 15 new facts. Let me correct myself…at least 19 new facts since I know I will most definitely learn something new from my two professors, Greg and Debra, and my two TA’s, Adrea and Rachel.

I truly hope you enjoy seeing the world the way I see it for these next 10 weeks!

Juan, Starting Out

Aspiring field biologist

My name is Juan Ceja and I am a 5th year Biology Major, with a double minor in Spanish and Conservation Biology. I actually only returned for my 5th year of undergraduate studies at UCLA so that I could participate in this Field Biology Quarter (FBQ). I am extremely interested in Behavior and Conservation, and it is for that reason that I am more and more excited every day be a part of such a life changing experience.

Participating in this Winter 2015 FBQ is something that I have been looking forward to since I found out I had been chosen to participate. During my Spring Quarter last year, I received the news that I was one of the lucky 15 students that would be traveling to Refugio Bartola, Nicaragua to study in a tropical rainforest. This was the best possible news at that time.

During this course, I hope to obtain valuable life experiences that will help me decide on the career that I will pursue after this final quarter of undergraduate study. I currently fantasize of being a field biologist, but I have not had any true field experience and do not know if all of my thoughts are just that, fantasy. This course will provide the perfect opportunity to learn what field research is all about and it will provide great insight to the ways field research is performed. One of my goals is to learn as much as possible from the two distinguished professors and the two talented teaching assistants that will be mentoring us through this entire experience.

My specific goal during the FBQ, aside from gaining as much experience as possible, is to carry out two successful research projects. One project will focus on behavior biology and the other on conservation biology. Being able to develop an experiment and properly execute it will definitely boost my self confidence in my abilities to pursue a career as a field biologist. I want to do all of this while creating experiences and establishing friendships that I will be able to carry with me for the rest of my life. Of course I also want to enjoy the trip and hopefully get to see a Capuchin!

Starting Out, Vivien

Ready for the Rainforest

Hello everyone. My name is Vivien and I am a third year biology student at UCLA. Since my freshman year at UCLA I have been looking forward to applying for the Field Biology Quarter, and I became even more excited when I found out that the study site was a tropical rainforest in Nicaragua. Upon receiving my interview and then finding out that I was chosen to be a part of this experience, I have been counting downs the months, weeks, and now approaching days until the trip. Even though the actual departure date is not until January 27, my bright orange hiking backpack has been packed since Christmas with everything I need for this expedition, including a insect-repelling bandana and my friend’s Go Pro camera, which I have promised to return in one piece.

I hope that with this trip I will be able to find my true passion. To me it’s not just a resume booster or another activity to list on an application. It is a step towards finding out what I want to do for the rest of my life, and therefore truly finding myself. Who knows, maybe studying dung beetles in the Rainforest is the exact place to find such a revelation. So, with this blog, my promise to you is that I will record every thought, feeling, and groundbreaking scientific discovery I make during this trip. Sometimes memories are more special when you get to share them with someone, and this way, it will be as if you were right beside me experiencing the same journey. Stay tuned!