Colin Young

http://hydrodictyon.eeb.uconn.edu/people/young/

I was born in a small, rural village of 300 people in Belize. While in elementary school, I became a tour guide at a local wildlife sanctuary. Here my interest in biology grew. I was fascinated with the environment and developed many questions about its natural history. At this young age, I knew that I wanted to become a biologist so that I could answer all these questions.

After graduating from high school, I took a year off to do volunteer work throughout Belize. Afterwards, I enrolled at the local University where I studied natural resources management. Having a keen interest in politics, I became involved in the student government and was elected president. After a year, I was offered an opportunity to study biology at Marlboro College in Vermont – what a temperature change! In 2000, I graduated summa cum laude with a BS in biology. My undergraduate thesis research took me back to Belize where I studied the ethnobotany of the Creole people, and to Hawaii where I engaged in research with the US Forest Service to combat an invasive grass species in the Kaupulehu dry forest reserve.

I’m currently pursuing a PhD at the University of Connecticut. Here I also became involved in the student government, and in 2002 I was elected president of the graduate student body. I plan on completing my degree by February of 2005. My ideal goal for the future is to be a professor and a researcher so that I may continue my quest to find answers to the questions I had growing up in the rainforest of Belize.