Malcolm McCallum's reply was certainly thorough. But in response to his initial
question, what do you mean by success, I should clarify. In my OP, I referred
to unpaid, or even pay-to-play internships and positions in the tropics. What I
meant by success, in that context, was: moving on from unpaid to paid, but
still working in the tropics.
We have examples like Goodall, Fossey, and Galdikas, who made entire careers
out of primatology research and conservation. They were backed by the Leakey
Institute, and appeared to have been set on that path right from the time they
were graduate students. Conversely, we have countless eager young people who
would like to do something like that, but cannot break the barrier of unpaid
work, so they end up "settling" (for lack of a better term) for conservation
careers in their own countries. "Mitigating" wetlands for a strip mall
developer can be a viable career; but would it be a satisfying one for someone
who dreamed of saving rainforests?
I appreciated the analysis from the Ecuador nonprofit. I knew immediately what
organization that was, because I did one of those internships with them under
their prior management. It was just as the new manager said: I paid to goof off
in the forest and do a lackluster project. I appreciated his detailed story of
how he got where he was. I also appreciated his candor in admitting that
privilege was a factor.
I am 45 years old. In the course of my adult life, I have switched careers
several times, usually by necessity. Sometimes the reasons are clear and I can
see my fault in them; other times, I still do not understand what happened. At
this point, at 45 with an M.S., I have accepted that an academic or research
career is not open to me. At this point, my goal is to get together enough
resources to spend my retirement years in the tropics, doing ecology research
in a small way that someone without an institutional lab can do. But I know
that there are young people in school right now with the same dream I once had,
and I posted that OP largely on their behalf.
Thank you to everyone who replied.
Jason HernandezEast Carolina alumnus
