Who Does This Kind of Thing?

Who does this kind of thing?

Research Assistant Profile -Elise Gilchrist
One of the numerous things I am gleaning from this expedition is the quality of people I am surrounded by each day. Currently, there are four primary groups (a fifth one will hopefully come before we depart.).
1). The Research assistants (RA's.) There are currently four recent college graduates in this role for Think Elephants International (TEI)
2). The Earthwatch volunteers: there are seven of us who have chosen consciously to participate in two weeks of science service leaning projects
3) The Mahouts and Thai staff at TEI. We have already been fortunate enough to have a wonderful class on Thai culture, language and Buddhist basics. We also get to see the Mahouts with their elephants.
4) The elephants themselves
5). We should by the end of the program get to meet Josh Plotnick who is the lead researcher.
As a teacher, I am constantly looking at my experiences here with a slant of "what would my students want to know about this" or "how can I transfer this skill or concept to my classroom". One thing that keeps coming up for me is how fascinating the company is here. Everyone here has such depth to their life and a willingness to explore, learn and act that I have found myself longing to share these folks with my readers.
Our goal is to profile as many of the participants and staff as possible. So, like all great journeys a starting point had to be picked. That point happens to be the RA Elise Gillchrist
from Connecticut, USA. Her 
undergraduate degree is from Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, PA. 
Her degree is in  Animal Behavior. 
Additional Schooling includes a semester abroad through the School for Field Studies

A summary of her of abroad experience includes 3 months spent in the Caribbean on Turks and Caicos with a focus on marine resource management. Two of these months were spent taking academic classes in the morning, with lab practicums in the afternoon doing data collection and experiment design. The last month she was able to pick one of twelve ongoing research projects. She worked on a behavioral project on the spotted eagle rays.

Elise'a Think Elephant International Experience -  Elise moved to Thailand two weeks after graduating from collage last year. She heard about the research through word of mouth and  contacted Dr. Josh Plotnik directly to inquire about working with TEI. The position was not ever posted. Because she has enjoyed the research so much, she has decided to commit to working for TEI for another year.

Why this internship and professional goal?
Elise came into the program recognizing the TEI had a trifold mission. 1) research 2) environmental education and 3) conservation. She wanted to start her career having the opportunity to see how much she liked each facet of science before deciding on an area of focus for graduate school. What she has learned is that she is passionate about conservation work and has learned a tremendous amount about how to apply research findings to conservation efforts.

Advice to students who wish to do this kind of work:
She wishes she had paid a lot more attention to writing skills, techniques and semantics as her work now requires a variety of writing styles for a variety of audience.

Her other hindsight advice was doing more of the "dorky" things while in college. By this she meant going to free lectures, visiting guest speakers cultural programs... She also felt like it was incredibly important to make personal connections with the presenters. Go up and ask them a question, e-mail them your thoughts as well as get to know your professors. The connections and ability to connect with professionals is the key to getting really cool opportunities.