Biology Video Transcript

You get a lot of great practical hands-on real-world experience in the biology program at the University of North Georgia. One of the great things about the biology department here is the support that we provide our students. In particular I think this is an amazing group of faculty.

All the faculty members are very good friends; we have lunch together we socialize together and that really translates into interpersonal relationships that develop between the faculty and the students sort of feel kinship with the professor and are more likely to ask questions.

Every professor wants to be here; they have a desire to teach.

Faculty and staff really care about their students in a way that I've never experienced before.

We have a very small student to faculty ratio which makes it very helpful for students to actually go to office hours and ask questions.

There's a lot of connection going on especially with faculty and staff and with other students. 

We have some stellar faculty that go above and beyond and we like to focus on challenging our students but also supporting them.

I had a mentor one time that told me that students really don't care how much you know until they know how much you care and so what I have learned through my many years of teaching is that when you care for students then you're able to push them academically really really hard. 

Another thing about this department that I think sets it apart is the opportunities outside of the classroom.

Everybody learns differently and I believe that trying a multitude of approaches really helps. I think lab opens up a whole new world for students. You can stand up and talk at people and get some things across and do a good job but I really think the experience of science being in the lab, maybe failing sometime, but also succeeding and other times. By the time they're done working with us I think they have gained a lot of skill and confidence.

We work very hard to create a very engaging dynamic teaching environment.

So it's one thing to sit in class and talk about things but actually having students go out in the field for the first time setup plots actually count numbers of plants measure them look at galls, it's just quite a different sort of experience for them.

We also have lots of research opportunities and here I unlike a bigger institution the undergraduate actually doing the research with the faculty.

They get experience with both the collection of the data why we collect the data how we collect the data and then what we do with that data after we collect it. In addition to the box turtle project here on the Gainesville campus we also are investigating a fungus that infects vertebrates including frog species. We have a number of undergraduate students with that research.

They get to apply what they have learned in the classroom to something that they can actually call their own. When they graduate it's not just about their GPA or their entrance exam scores, but they've got a track record of doing something that is impressive unusual in different. But our goal really is to give students the opportunity to shine.

And we have students come here for example want to be teachers, we have students who have desires to be in health care professions; they want to go to medical school, veterinary school, or pharmacy. We have a few students who actually come thinking that they want to actually be research scientist.

They go on to molecular biology, cell biology, genetics, ecology, you name it and we provide the foundation to give them the skills they need to go on to those programs.

There's lots of different support mechanisms for students. We've taken students that maybe not been very successful in high school maybe they need some support services before they can enter into the program we've got them up to where they need to go into the program some of those students have really shined.

We have internship opportunities for our students and most recently we've started adding international forces one in Belize one in Costa Rica and the third one were planning in South Africa.

The University has been partnering with many organizations that allow internship opportunities for students. Some examples are the CDC also the Georgia Poultry Lab. The Poultry Science pathway for our associate's degree that we have here is a two-year program. Students can come in here get their first two years of classes as well as their introductory poultry classes here then transfer to University of Georgia for a Bachelor's degree, or they can go into the work force.

University of North Georgia Gainesville Campus is in the northeastern Piedmont region characterized by rolling hills.

On the Dahlonega campus we are fortunate enough to be almost entirely surrounded by national forest.

It was really close to home, the financial opportunities made it really as a choice as well.

The Oconee campus is 15 minutes from downtown Athens.

It's small and they have great professors that you can really connect with. You can tell they really want to help you. My professor would always find a way to tie in everything anyone had to say to something real in our lives. It was great; it really made me love Biology.

I've decided to teach just to teach just they have taught me.

The biology department has really helped me to get to where I am and to even be able to win an internship as prestigious as the one at the National Institutes of Health.

I enjoyed my major completely. It really is worth it.

It's just a great place to be.