Starting my Graduate Journey...at the Zoo!

First, let me start off by saying that my creation, Environmentally fashionable/Globally Healthy, will be a place where I can share with you my love for the environment, fitness and fashion!  Yup!  In my first couple of years of college, I was looking to major in fashion design!  I had always felt so torn between being so interested in such a "vain" world of fashion...sometimes totally not into the welfare of the planet and animals, and being interested in preserving plants, animals, etc.

Well...that was a long time ago now!  Yes, still loving fashion and cannot give it up!  Sooooo... I will be combining all of my loves (as most know, I am a fitness trainer and competitor...a fitness freak!) and sharing them with you.  I'm hoping along the way I will be able to find really great products, clothes, etc. to share that are earth friendly and look great or work great!

So...back to the zoo.  I'm starting my Graduate Degree program through the University of Miami and the Chicago Zoological Society...it's called the AIP Program.  Check it out Here!

It'll be a Master's in Zoology although this is misleading.  It actually will be teaching us how to do research in the environmental field involving anything green, animals, etc.  Needless to say, it's a two and a half year program and won't be quitting my day jobs of Medical Lab Research and being a personal trainer anytime soon ;)

My first class is Foundations of Inquiry.  A lot of it is online while we recently also spent a full week daily at the zoo getting to know our fellow classmates and to start learning how to set up studies and such.

 In the morning...tiger looks just like my cats at home...sleeping!
 Dolphins going through one of their many training sessions daily...
 Female lion...looking pretty peaceful in the early am!  Ha!
 A lot of squirrels were sleeping midday...this one in a perfect spot!
Me super-excited to have found this program, submitted, got accepted and started!

So, during our zoo week...we went over many times, how to pick a topic, start our data collection, analyze our data and draw conclusions from it.  Then we presented it to the rest of our class in many different ways, including charades!  

More blogs to come!

xo Nat

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