Callie Hauser is from Las Cruces, New Mexico, and is currently a senior at New Mexico State University pursuing a fish, wildlife, and conservation ecology degree. She has always hoped to travel, live, or work somewhere in the north and has dreamed of a career as a large mammal biologist or as an outreach and outdoor education professional. With the support she received through the Chrysalis Fund, Callie interned for Ecology Project International (EPI) Yellowstone, where she gained valuable experience in her prospective career paths while working in the northern states of Montana and Wyoming.

For the first portion of Callie’s internship, she co-instructed one five-day-long and two nine-day-long field education courses. During that time, she delivered ecology lessons, helped manage student groups, taught camping skills to youth, and gained field educator experience. Teaching the courses helped her develop foundational skills in lesson planning, community building, presenting, public speaking, and group management. One of her favorite moments from this portion of her internship was inspiring a young student to educate their classmates about how the cheatgrass plant alters the fire ecology of grasslands.

Callie spent the second half of her internship working with an EPI partner program—the National Park Service (NPS) bison team. While her fieldwork with NPS supported various research projects, most of the data she collected contributed to a study about how bison grazing impacts various plant communities—its results could help inform bison and plant management plans in Yellowstone National Park. She also assisted in tracking down VHF collars from deceased mule deer and gained experience with animal husbandry at the bison quarantine facility.