My name is Ava Kidd, and I have always had a passion for wildlife and animals when growing up, and even now! When I was younger, if something had animals in it, I would indulge in it. From Wild Kratts, Henry's Amazing Animals, and Octonauts, to all the Eyewitness animal books, to Animal Jam, I loved learning about all the animals in the world no matter what the format was! The biggest thing I knew even as a child was that I wanted to protect, save, and educate others on animals. One of the experiences I have in animal welfare so far is tending to many animals at Cub Creek Science Camp, where I worked at this summer. Many of the animals that reside at Cub Creek are exotic surrendered pets, rescues, or were in poor living conditions prior. I primarily focused and educated campers on our sanctuaried reptiles and arthropods. It was great educating children on animals that are deemed 'scary, creepy, and dangerous', and enabling them to have hands-on interactions with them to reduce their fear and to break those myths and stereotypes towards our small critters. Another experience I have is with conservation efforts. I am a lab assistant at my university in which we look at avian behavior and physiology, and using white-crowned sparrows as a model, we can analyze their migratory habits and further understand their breeding grounds, which can help preserve those habitats and uplift migration success rates. Many birds die during their migratory trip, and we want to figure out the factors behind that and how to prevent it. We have many seminars on birds, and we hand out and promote anti-window collision stickers for birds as well as shade grown bird-friendly coffee grounds. Lastly, my most recent experience has been volunteering with the Dauphin Island Sea Lab in both their Marine Mammal Stranding Network and the Alabama Aquarium. The goal for MMSN is to assist in stranded dolphins, manatees, and specifically Rice's whale and get them back to safety or rehabilitate them if they are injured such as boat strikes. Then, at the Alabama Aquarium, I act as a docent, educating the visitors on our animals. Our wildlife at the aquarium are all ethically caught during the Sea Lab's research excursions, and after a while they are released back into the wild unless they are injured. My goals for serving animals in the future are working in conserving wildlife, protecting endangered species, or restoring the habitats that these animals rely on. I believe that helping our wildlife is the key to keeping the outdoors a safe place for all of our animals and their ecosystems.

A problem I believe is the most urgent, and one that I am particularly always devastated about is deforestation and the alteration of habitat. It always disappoints me when I see construction for new shopping centers and neighborhoods beginning, where hundreds upon thousands of trees are being cut down for it, when there are abandoned, old shopping centers that could be restored and reused instead of building a new one entirely. I believe that people fail to realize how many species go extinct and endangered year after year from human disturbances like habitat destruction. Forests provide endless amounts of shelter and breeding grounds for countless amounts of birds, insects, amphibians, reptiles, mammals, plants, and lichen. Every species has a purpose, and those animals have a critical impact on our ecosystem and make nature's processes continue to happen. Even besides animals, trees help our earth cool down by absorbing carbon dioxide, the more the merrier. The reason why this topic is so urgent, is because acres of land are being cut down and destroyed at a higher rate than trees being replaced, creating a feedback loop that continuously degrades our environment. My goal in life is to help protect our land and have it last for years and years to come so that future generations can enjoy the beauty of our forests. Another reason this issue deserves more attention is because the effects of deforestation extend far beyond the forests themselves. When habitats are destroyed, ecosystems become unbalanced, affecting everything from pollination to water quality and even the climate. Many animals are forced into smaller areas where they struggle to find food, leading to more conflicts between wildlife and people. Once a forest is gone, it can take decades or even centuries to recover, and some ecosystems may never fully return to what they once were, ultimately potentially causing extinction of species. Even species that rely on edge habitats still need the woods. I believe we should focus more on protecting the forests we still have, restoring damaged habitats, and making better use of land that has already been developed instead of continuing to clear untouched natural areas. To reiterate, my dream is to restore forests and habitats and educate others on why it is important to protect those habitats so that more and more people can come together and protect one of our most precious things on earth. Conserving our forests and woodland species is extremely urgent, because once it is all gone, it is going to be a difficult feat to bring it all back.

I believe that as humans who all live on this Earth should all cooperate to do as much as we can to be sustainable and decrease our negative impact on the environment. We only have one Earth to take care of and to live on. Partaking in being more sustainable can do wonders in all sorts of ways. Many people feel the need to buy the newest, trendiest items that are going 'viral', when in reality you do not need it, you just think you need it. Opting out of doing so is a form of practicing sustainability. You save yourself money, as well as saving that item from being thrown in a landfill. The more people resist against buying these cheap, mass-produced items, the less they will be produced and potentially cease to exist. It is especially bad since a large majority of trendy items will take hundreds of years to decompose, if at all. Not only is the material bad to sit in landfills for years, but what it takes to even make that material for plastic-y polyester material creates greenhouse gases as well. It is a giant cycle in which, if everyone works together, we can all set it back and prevent our Earth from being any more cluttered and degraded. The only thing that can intervene with the decreasing quality of our Earth is us, and more people need to step in to make that change for the better.

My name is Ava Kidd, I am 20 years old and I am currently in my second year of college at the University of South Alabama. I am biracial, with a white father and an black & native mixed mother, who separated soon after I was born. I grew up with my mother for a large portion of my childhood, and we were barely making it by. We were living off of $500 a month in child support, having to ask relatives for assistance on the regular. I had never thought about going to college as a kid, as I knew I would never be able to afford it, and the idea of having thousands in loans scared me. It was pretty conflict situation for me, as I loved nature and animals, and of course I would have wanted to work with animals as an adult, but I knew at that time it would not be possible. Instead, my dream job was some sort of office worker. Yes, my dream job while I was 10 years old was to simply work a 9-5 in an office setting because I knew there was not much I could do in the situation I was in. Eventually, I started living with my dad when I was about 14. This was my choice, it had nothing to do with how little money we had, it was due to some conflict at the time, but I am still close with my mother! My dad had a good job and was more financially stable, yet we were still a little below average class. In my junior year of high school, I took environmental science as one of my classes, and I fell in love it. Over the summer, an interest had sparked that would change the direction of my life forever, but I will touch back on this later. The next year I took AP environmental science, and that is when I knew I needed to have a career that was outdoors. Learning about our environment in those classes changes my worldview so much, that I decided to talk to my dad about university and if we can afford it. My father never went to college, and my mother had gotten an associates degree in her 20s but never got a job with its field, nor had a job after I was born, so they did not know much about 4-year universities and their expenses. My dad had about $6,000 in general savings, and after finding out the estimated amount of financial aid I would get, he felt more comfortable. I applied to the University of South Alabama, where I got accepted and currently attend right now! The first semester of freshmen year went fine in terms of having funds, but starting with the second semester, we were tight on money. My tuition per semester is going to gradually increase the more I take higher level courses. My dad is trying his best to not have to take out loans, and he saves up as much as he can during the summer, but it is just barely enough, and causes a strain on us. Now, my whole reason and drive for even being in college is because of two things, birds and conservation. As I said earlier, I got into birdwatching in late high school after I saw a great blue heron flying overhead at my dad's house. It was extremely close, only about 15 feet away! It was the most magical thing I had ever seen. After that, I fell into a rabbit hole of learning more about birds. That, plus my interest in the environmental science classes I was taking at the time, really fueled my passion for how important our environment and ecosystems are. Birds are extremely important for our world, and we need to protect and conserve them so that our local ecosystems are stable. The STEM fields that I am set on pursuing in, is wildlife conservation, environmental science, or general ornithology, which is the study of birds. I am even in my university's Bird Brain'd lab program that aims to research and learn more about birds' behavior, anatomy, and mechanics. The type of impact that I wish to make in my future is protection and progression. I want to partake in protecting native species in our ecosystems, keeping them safe for years to come so that our outside world is stable for generations to come. I also want to engage in the progression of discovering more information on the outside world. Scientists make new discoveries on subjects that may seem obvious every single day, and it never hurts to discover more! I want to make a positive impact on wildlife and also on other people so that they know more about wildlife. I believe it is incredibly important that our community learns about the world that surrounds them, why it is important, and why we should protect it. I am passionate about nature and wildlife because once something is gone, it is extremely hard to come back, that is if it comes back at all. It is crucial that people go into the conservation field to protect our world. Attached are my own photographs of birds I have seen, a snake I held at a conservation center, and a photo of me (middle) with two other members of the lab when we went out to catch sparrows for migratory research.

Ever since I was a kid, I had always had an interest in the natural world, specifically animals. I knew an immense amount of facts and species of animals at a young age, and I had tons of National Geographic and Smithsonian Eyewitness books. Despite this, I always told myself long ago that my ideal future career was to be something simple, like working in an office. Growing up with a single mother barely making it off of 500 dollars a month was my answer that I would not be able to go to college. So I had never even considered the idea of going to college to get a degree in zoology, biology, environmental science, etc. because I knew that a large percentage of those jobs require a degree. After some time, I began living with my father around my sophomore year of high school. Right outside my dad's house is a creek, and one day as I was taking the trash to the curb, I saw a Great Blue Heron flying overhead only about 15ft away from me. My jaw dropped, and I could not help but stare. It was the most magical thing I had ever seen in my life! I knew herons existed, but seeing one that close felt like something prehistoric, it was just so incredible. I tell that story to everyone who asks me what got me into birding, which I will talk about next! After that moment happened, I googled around to learn more about the Great Blue Heron. Then I managed to spiral into a rabbit hole on birds in general. Now before all this, I knew some general bird species, mostly ones outside the United States because I watched animal documentaries for other countries, but honestly I didn't know too much about our native birds here in Alabama or the United States. What I thought was going to be a little phase turning into my current career path essentially! I took up birdwatching as a hobby and have been obsessed with birds for about 4 years now. I took environmental science in my junior year, then took AP environmental science my senior year. After that I definitely knew I wanted to have a career regarding wildlife, animals, or environmental science. Since living with my dad, we discussed that college is more possible since he had some money saved up, plus with the help of FASFA. I made a last minute decision to go to college, where I intend on majoring in Biology with a concentration in Environmental Science. My main drive being birds and their importance in the environment and why they are so important to conserve. At the University of South Alabama, this is currently my second year being involved in the Bird Brain'd lab where we have many research projects running to learn more about birds. I was involved in the White-Crowned Sparrow project in which the primary goal is to learn more about their migratory habits revolving around their brain mechanisms. I hope to have a career in the future that is for the sake of saving and learning more about birds, while also helping the environment, as they are extremely important to it!