Persistence powers a career change into conservation
Every year, Débora García Ovejero spent her vacation traveling from her home in the Netherlands to places like Africa and Asia, volunteering with animal conservation groups.
As soon as the trip ended, she hopped on her computer to research. Maybe she’d work with elephants next year, or perhaps she should choose leopards or other big cats. Dreaming was exciting, but something was missing.
“I kept asking myself, ‘What’s the best way I can make a lasting impact?’ I realized that going once wasn’t enough,” she said. “I needed to return to university to gain the knowledge and qualifications to make that happen.”
A return to the classroom — online
García Ovejero had studied applied sciences years ago in Buenos Aires, Argentina. That education eventually led to a job as a technical project manager for a company near her home.
But making conservation her career would require a different type of education. And García Ovejero knew she’d need to work and study in parallel.
“I was looking for a university that offered the entire program online. I needed to keep working full time while I studied, so an online program made it possible for me to do both,” she said.
A worldwide search led her to Oregon State University’s fisheries, wildlife, and conservation sciences bachelor’s degree online. She was impressed with the course descriptions and opportunities to participate in research as the program progressed.
Gaining support from miles away was an important part of the decision. García Ovejero spoke with the Oregon State Ecampus enrollment services staff through email and phone calls and got the reassurance she needed.
“The communication was always good, despite the nine-hour time difference,” she said. “It gave me the confidence that this was the right place to continue my studies.”
Developing new routines
Balancing a full-time job with an online degree program required careful planning. For five years, García Ovejero dedicated her evenings and weekends to her Oregon State courses, maintaining a schedule that helped her work toward her goal.
“I was very disciplined,” she explained. “It is a commitment that you make. You have to be very strict with yourself.”
Débora García Ovejero visited Oregon State’s Corvallis campus for the first time when she traveled from the Netherlands to attend commencement after completing her degree online.
The distance between García Ovejero and her Oregon State instructors and classmates could have led to a feeling of isolation, but it never impacted her ability to succeed in the program. OSU’s tutoring resources helped her to understand difficult course concepts, and she found support from her academic advisor and other student services.
“Oregon State offers a lot of support for students,” she said. “That support made a real difference in my journey and helped me get to where I am today.”
Gaining critical research experience
An internship was part of García Ovejero’s fisheries, wildlife, and conservation sciences degree program. She traveled to Namibia to assist a nongovernmental organization (NGO) studying large animals and their movements.
Namibia is home to almost 4,000 species found in the country and nowhere else. Drought conditions put animals in close contact with humans and their crops, and sometimes, that leads to conflict.
The NGO placed motion-detecting cameras along animal trails. Using a dataset of thousands of images, interns like García Ovejero filtered the data, identified species and performed descriptive statistical analyses.
The data could allow researchers to estimate the abundance of each species and the density of targeted species. That’s information the government could use to mitigate human-wildlife conflict in the area and protect species in their natural habitat.
“This project, for me, not only helped me to gain experience in field research and data analysis, but it also helped to strengthen my interest in conservation research and applied ecology,” García Ovejero said.
After returning to the Netherlands, García Ovejero was invited to contribute to a journal article about the work, contributing tables and writing some key sections.
“It was a great experience to work with people with broad expertise in conservation and help shape their ideas,” she said.
Ready for what’s next after earning an online conservation degree
García Ovejero is enrolled in a biology master’s degree program at Wageningen University and Research in the Netherlands. The program lasts for two years, and its in-person format means García Ovejero had to quit her job to complete her studies.
After years of volunteering during her vacations — then studying during evenings and weekends while earning her Oregon State degree online — she’s finally making conservation her full-time focus. What started as a desire to do more for wildlife has become the foundation of a new career.
Learn more about the fisheries, wildlife, and conservation sciences degree that helped García Ovejero take her career in an entirely new direction.
