CSL's First White Coat

Hannah Durick will be coated at this evening's White Coat Ceremony at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, celebrating her matriculation at the College of Veterinary Medicine. This rite of passage marks an incredible journey of perseverance--from anthropology to geography and ultimately veterinary medicine--in Hannah's pursuit to protect and conserve wildlife.

Hannah joined our program as a biogeographer and was adopted into CSL to contribute to a project that seeks to determine the environmental drivers of Namibia's desert elephants' seasonal migrations. Unlike those of us who are in CSL because we enjoy hands-off, climate controlled environments with computers instead of bugs and other wildlife, Hannah actually wanted hands-on field experience in wildlife rehabilitation. An internship at a wildlife sanctuary led her to realize the crucial role of veterinarians in wildlife conservation, and thus began a seemingly impossible quest: without any of the necessary pre-vet coursework from her undergraduate anthropology degree, Hannah spent the past two years redoing her undergraduate degree to obtain all of the necessary prerequisites for veterinary school, on top of volunteering and shadowing at clinics, while teaching labs and working on her master's degree.

She pulled it all off with flying colors! Hannah's master's degree was conferred last week, she was admitted at virtually all of the veterinary schools to which she applied, and so today the next chapter in her journey begins. We have always wanted lab coats for our Climate Science Lab, and are therefore thrilled that Hannah is the first CSL member to not only get, but actually earn a white coat. Congratulations on these amazing achievements, Hannah!

Hannah in the Monteverde Cloud Forest.