Steven M. Grodsky

I was born and raised in Stillwater, New Jersey, a small town at the base of the Appalachian Mountains near the borders of eastern Pennsylvania and southern New York. My town and surrounding area offered an abundance of natural resources and settings that certainly contributed to my love of nature. Yet, there were many key influences in my younger life that brought upon my intense interest in nature, the outdoors, and conservation.

One of the most important influences that inspired my interest in what I learned later to be ecology was the countless times my father exposed me to the outdoors. We would look under rocks in streams, search for salamanders in ravines, hike, fish, and later hunt in the woods of Sussex County for deer and turkey. Throughout high school I enjoyed nature but never streamlined my interest into one particular realm of ecology. It was not until I was introduced to the world of birds that I started taking ecological study seriously. This interest in birds is solely attributed to an extremely influential high school teacher, Mr. Dan Chamberlain (a Cook College graduate). Every spring morning for my senior year, Mr. Chamberlain taught me the basic skills for identifying birds as we birded in woods behind the school that served as a stopover for Neotropical songbirds. These two men, my father David Grodsky and my high school environmental science teacher Dan Chamberlain, are responsible for paving a path for which I am following. The fulfilling life I have led thus far and my further education in ecology has stemmed from this path; I will never forget those who helped me to understand what I now truly love nor will I neglect to attempt to have a similar influence on my own children or pupils in the future.

At Cook College I have accumulated an education in ecology of which the diversity and dimensions far exceed my original expectations. One of the more influential occurrences during my time at Cook, aside from the various classes and great professors that laid a foundation for my education, was a research opportunity that significantly changed my way of thinking and acting. During the summers of my freshman and sophomore years, I participated in a study on the breeding success of the American Oystercatcher, Haematopus palliates, under the supervision of Rutgers University PhD candidate Tom Virzi. It was this project that introduced me to the world of research and supplemented my formal education of course work. The project reassured me that the field of ecology was most definitely the area for which I would like to study and work in. Again, my gratitude for Tom Virzi as well as his committee professors Dr. David Drake and Dr. Julie Lockwood extends beyond words, since the opportunity they allowed me was worth an incredible amount to my development as an ecologist. 

As a result of the major influence Cook College has had on me personally and academically, I feel that I owe it to the professors who have supported my education, my peers who enjoy the field ecology as much as I do, and myself to continue my education at the next level. Thus, I will attend the University of Wisconsin – Madison to obtain a master’s degree in wildlife ecology. I will begin work on the effects of wind turbines on bird and bat migration this summer and continue my research and coursework until 2010-2011. Afterwards, I hope to obtain a PhD and teach at a university while doing research, most likely on birds but there is no telling where my interests will lie that far ahead. 

Probably the most important plans I have for the future truly represents my education at Cook over the years; these plans include living in the most sustainable way possible. I hope to establish an organic farm operation that will grow as I teach and research, hopefully reaching a level of self sustenance and financial stability in time for me to work solely on the farm later in life. While my love for ecology will never diminish, I believe that the sustainable lifestyle of farming is not only extremely fulfilling but is in direct coordination with the field of ecology. 

I would like to thank all the professors who have taken the time to teach me the ways of ecology and provide me the tools to continue on to the next level. I can only hope that one day I can do a good of a job as those who have taught me have done.