Jennifer Bridgeman

All my life I have been an avid lover of nature and wildlife. Both driven and focused, I am extremely passionate about my dreams and goals. I characterize myself as someone who's not only compassionate, observant, and a team player, but someone who's also a life-long learner. I've learned that throughout many of life's challenges it's possible to persevere and accomplish what I set my mind to. My passions have been refined throughout much of my volunteer work, and I often find myself supporting others who share the same determination as I do to make a dream take flight. A few years ago I found myself working with a local falconer who heads an organization called Earthwings, which provides educational programs with trained birds to help people understand wildlife conservation and respect all wildlife and its environment. We strive to one day open a one-of-a-kind public wildlife center where can we preserve a piece of land for future generations, perform birds of prey research and conservation, and help people make a connection to mother nature.

I've been to three different colleges, finally finding a place for myself at the University of Utah. It's true that it isn't the best school for the kind of career I pursue, but for a few reasons I was unable to attend a university outside of my hometown. With enough research and comparison to other schools, I found that the University of Utah was capable of producing a major concentrated in wildlife biology. Through a bachelor of undergraduate studies program I created my own major, wildlife biology, and the proposal was approved after much preparation, planning, meetings, and support. However, the road will be difficult! I cannot obtain any scholarships from the University because I do not belong to any specific department that can offer me a scholarship, and many classes could be canceled in the future, but I plan to continue my educational career nonetheless and gain experience by participating in research with the Biodiversity and Conservation Ecology Lab at the University.