{"id":1159,"date":"2019-03-27T15:03:18","date_gmt":"2019-03-27T22:03:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ecampus.oregonstate.edu\/news\/?p=1159"},"modified":"2024-07-23T14:54:23","modified_gmt":"2024-07-23T21:54:23","slug":"remote-studies-support-fisheries-career","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ecampus.oregonstate.edu\/news\/remote-studies-support-fisheries-career\/","title":{"rendered":"Remote studies, experiential learning push forward fisheries career"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Tommy

Oregon State Ecampus helped Tommy Sheridan, pictured above, pair his passions for workforce development and Alaskan aquaculture. Now, through a donation to the OSU Foundation, he\u2019s paying it forward to future Oregon State online fisheries students.<\/p><\/div>\n

Ecampus enabled Tommy Sheridan to grow his fish and wildlife career without leaving Alaska \u2013 or even his job \u2013 and he wants future students to follow in his footsteps<\/h2>\n

Forging a career in Alaska\u2019s seafood industry isn\u2019t easy \u2013 the terrain is rugged, the catch is unpredictable and the weather is\u2026 inclement.<\/p>\n

Making it there requires going with the flow, says Oregon State University Ecampus alum Tommy Sheridan, who previously earned a Fisheries Management Graduate Certificate<\/a>\u00a0and a Professional Science Master\u2019s in Fisheries and Wildlife Administration<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n

Pathway to a master’s degree<\/h2>\n

Earn a graduate certificate online to advance your career and serve as a pathway to a master’s degree. Credits may be applied toward Oregon State’s online Master of Natural Resources degree or Professional Science Master’s degrees in Fisheries and Wildlife Administration or Environmental Sciences.<\/p>\n

Learn more<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n

Do that, he says, and you\u2019ll discover a land ripe with possibility.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no place like it. I can\u2019t see myself ever leaving,\u201d he says. \u201cMy career is inexorably linked with Alaska. I have more to offer this place than anywhere else, and vice versa.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, with a gift to Oregon State Ecampus through the OSU Foundation (and accompanying outreach efforts) Tommy is encouraging future fisheries students to follow in his wake.<\/p>\n

An upstream trajectory<\/h3>\n

Like many before him, Tommy was lured to The Last Frontier by a passion for aquaculture. He arrived in 2002 after working as a research assistant and science diver and landed a series of remote field jobs, from conservation intern to fisheries technician to assistant hatchery manager.<\/p>\n

Chasing the currents of his passions meant making his home in some pretty unexpected places: a travel trailer parked beside a remote alpine lake, a floating house in a remote fjord, even a research vessel plying the choppy waters of Prince William Sound.<\/p>\n

By 2012, though, things were shifting. Tommy had married a woman he\u2019d met on the ferry to Juneau, they\u2019d decided to start a family, and he sought to rise higher in his career. In order to be more competitive in the field, he knew he needed to further his education.<\/p>\n

Tommy chose a fully online Fisheries Management Graduate Certificate, offered by the OSU Department of Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Sciences<\/a> and delivered online through top-ranked Oregon State Ecampus, then went on to enroll in the online P.S.M. in Fisheries and Wildlife Administration through OSU\u2019s pathway program.<\/p>\n

He was the first Alaskan to enroll in either program, but the choice felt easy \u2013 he\u2019d already taken several postbaccalaureate Ecampus courses, studying under OSU faculty he\u2019d met in the field, and he knew the format worked well for him.<\/p>\n

\"Tommy

Supported by his family, Tommy went back to school online at Oregon State to further his education and advance in his career, all while living and working in Alaska.<\/p><\/div>\n

The \u2018beauty and promise\u2019 of a remote education<\/h3>\n

Historically, ambitious Alaskans like Tommy have paused promising careers to pursue advanced out-of-state education, and they don\u2019t always come back. That\u2019s hard on the seafood industry, Tommy says, and completely avoidable: \u201cThat\u2019s the real beauty and promise of distance education. Students don\u2019t need to leave their day jobs. There\u2019s so much value in developing those connections and maintaining that real-world experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

While studying, Tommy continued to advance professionally: He worked as an area management biologist for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game and was soon tapped to manage one of the state\u2019s largest salmon fisheries.<\/p>\n

He also augmented his remote studies with experiential learning opportunities: visits to the Oregon Hatchery Research Center and the Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport, Oregon, trips to present at various conferences as well as OSU\u2019s Corvallis campus to take classes for his (non-distance) rural studies minor. He even made it to a Beaver football game.<\/p>\n

“<\/span>Students don\u2019t need to leave their day jobs. There\u2019s so much value in developing those connections and maintaining that real-world experience.”<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

By then a seasoned fish and wildlife professional, Tommy enjoyed helping his classmates connect theoretical concepts to practical applications in the field, and his capstone project, which involved developing and teaching a fisheries course for the University of Alaska Southeast, solidified that work-learn-teach trifecta.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a great experience for me, and it wouldn\u2019t have been possible without the framework of Ecampus and the flexibility I had to spend that time outside of the online classroom,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

A true believer<\/h3>\n

Then, things shifted again. The Sheridan family had grown to four, and they felt ready to be less remote \u2013 at least by Alaskan standards.<\/p>\n

So Tommy took a job with Silver Bay Seafoods, a fishermen-owned processing-and-freezing company in Valdez, a close-knit community on Prince William Sound.<\/p>\n

\"Tommy

In his role on the City of Cordova Fisheries Development Committee, Tommy worked with community partners, including Trident Seafoods\u2019 Plant Manager Chris Golatto, pictured with Tommy, to help re-establish the Prince William Sound Tanner crab fishery.<\/p><\/div>\n

After graduation, Tommy stayed on at Silver Bay as an external affairs officer, working to facilitate communication between Silver Bay\u2019s fishermen-owners and fishery policymakers. He loves the work, and largely credits his Oregon State education for preparing him to do it well.<\/p>\n

Last year, Tommy began paying that gratitude forward. His $500 gift to the Gerald R. Fisher Internship in Aquaculture & Hatchery Management<\/a>, made through the OSU Foundation, supports travel funds for Ecampus fisheries and wildlife students eager to augment their online experiences by attending real-world forums, like conferences and regulatory proceedings.<\/p>\n

Tommy says he truly believes that the distance education opportunities available through Ecampus could transform the way Alaska\u2019s seafood industry trains \u2013 and retains \u2013 talented workers. That\u2019s a cause close to his heart, and one worth championing in any way he can.<\/p>\n

\u201cI see there being a lot of opportunities for connecting with people who are in a similar position as I was in 10 years ago,\u201d he says. \u201cIf I can reach those people, it\u2019s good for them, and it\u2019s good for Alaska.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ready to follow your passion? Count us in.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Learn more today.<\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

<\/span> 5<\/span> minute read<\/span><\/span>Forging a career in Alaska\u2019s seafood industry isn\u2019t easy \u2013 but Oregon State Ecampus alum Tommy Sheridan can’t picture himself anywhere else. While living and working in Alaska, his Fisheries Management Graduate Certificate and\u00a0Professional Science Master’s in Fisheries and Wildlife Administration offered ample career growth. Now, with a gift to Oregon State Ecampus through the OSU Foundation, Tommy is encouraging future fisheries students to follow in his wake.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":1160,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,6,3,677,8],"tags":[374,26,512,485,484,25,24,482],"class_list":["post-1159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all","category-ecampus","category-features","category-students-and-alumni","category-students","tag-college-of-agricultural-sciences","tag-distance-education","tag-experiential-learning","tag-fisheries-and-wildlife-administration","tag-fisheries-management","tag-online-education","tag-online-learning","tag-osu-foundation"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ecampus.oregonstate.edu\/news\/assets\/Tommy-Sheridan-main.jpg?fit=744%2C478&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7BNSE-iH","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1292,"url":"https:\/\/ecampus.oregonstate.edu\/news\/fisheries-and-wildlife-program-earns-award\/","url_meta":{"origin":1159,"position":0},"title":"Oregon State\u2019s fisheries and wildlife online program earns prestigious national award","author":"Tyler Hansen","date":"November 20, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"A track record of student success and faculty satisfaction have helped an Oregon State University online bachelor\u2019s degree program be honored as one of the nation\u2019s best. 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