Make a Difference Where You Want To

Guest blog by: Jessie Schieler

You know what my favorite thing is about Tigers for Tigers? You can be whatever you want and still get the chance to work with students from all over the United States and make a difference for tigers. How cool is that?

Let me give you a quick introduction: hi, my name is Jessie. I’m an upcoming sophomore at Auburn University, and I’m changing my major from Organismal Biology to Secondary Science Education. In more comprehensible words, I want to be a high school science teacher. More specifically, I want to be a high school zoology teacher. That’s kind of an interesting jump, am I right? It’s kind of in the same ball park, but not really. 

Ever since I was a little girl I had always wanted to be involved with animals. I was that one child who went up to a snarling dog saying, “oh, he just needs a hug!!” while my mother was pulling me away saying, “OH NO, he doesn’t!!!!” Or that one child who came up holding a snake, “look what I found, dad!!” (While he would secretly be proud I was the little snake wrestler) but would have to tell me “Jess, you cannot just go picking up any snake you find.” I’m still surprised at how chill he was about that, I mean, I could’ve been bitten! But hey, at least I was fearless. (Maybe more oblivious.) Anyways, I have always had a passion for animals, I wanted to be able to do something with them, somehow. So, when the time came, I started off as you would think, a scientist. My problem was, I never particularly liked the scientist part—the experiments and what not—I enjoyed telling people about the cool facts. I didn’t necessarily care where those cool facts came from, just as long as I could be the one to tell them.

Well, luckily this science major led me to an interesting find, Tigers for Tigers. My professor noticed my knack of talking to people about what I love, big cats, and introduced me to a guy named Sean. Tigers for Tigers was definitely cool, and it got me excited. I had to be involved.

I took on my first project, Cubs for Cubs. Silly me, the first thing I was drawn to was the teaching part of the organization and was still oblivious to how much I loved it. Cubs for Cubs is a branch off of T4T where students attend elementary and middle schools to educate kids about why it is important to save tigers, and more importantly why it is important to want to.

As I got more involved in the group I still noticed how much I enjoyed working with the people and more importantly how much I enjoyed talking to people about the neat things we were doing. I think what really made me click with this group was that in a world full of scientists, I was not one. That’s kind of weird, right? The cool thing about it was that we all had the same passion, so we all got along really well. However, a scientist is different than a teacher, yes? So, why did we work together so well? Because we have the same passion for saving tigers, we can bring each other into our different worlds and see different perspectives which I believe really makes our organization stronger.

Jessie Schieler pictured in orange while filming Earth Day video at the National T4T Summit at LSU

Tigers for Tigers made me realize how much I do enjoy working in the science field, but not as the scientist. It’s important in an organization to have  strengths in various disciplines so you can reach out to different people, but find that same passion. We always focus on trying to get people outside of the science world into our clubs. In order for the scientists to proclaim their work, they need the teachers to share it. The teachers need the scientists to give them something to share. It’s a cool “circle of life” we have going on at T4T.

I honestly think being a teacher is the best move for me, and I would have never realized it without working with such an awesome group of students with T4T. I hope that when I graduate and get a job, I can inspire high school kids to do what they want to do, regardless of the “stereotypes” that jobs normally come with. You don’t have to be a doctor to work in the medical field, and you don’t have to be a scientist to work in the animal field. You can be whatever you want to be, just as long as you love it.

Of course my mom is a teacher. Funny, that’s how it normally goes, doesn’t it? I always said, “I’ll never be a teacher” and yet, here I am!

Jessie Schieler

Auburn University

C/O 2018

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A huge thanks to Jessie for participating as a guest blogger for T4T. We look forward to featuring her many more times in the future!

Carrah Lingo
Communications Associate
NT4TC