Ryan

Wilkie

Honours Bachelor of Environmental Management
Thunder Bay, ON

I chose Lakehead University specifically for the Environmental Management program because I love the outdoors and I feel that it is the best fit for me. I grew up partly in Thunder Bay and partly on a small, family farm outside of Brandon, Manitoba, where I spent almost every day outside exploring. The natural beauty of northern Ontario is a great environment to study in, and allows me to fulfill my sense of adventure. Every fall, friends and I go hiking and camping out at Sleeping Giant Provincial Park just outside of the city and go snowshoeing in the winter along the same trails. I have always been interested in the environment and have felt a strong sense of responsibility to safeguard it, which lead me to the NRM faculty at Lakehead.

I feel that the program is a great choice for anyone because of the opportunities it provides. As an example, I was picked to go on two international field school trips. First I went to Finland for two weeks to visit Helsinki University and tour the lower half of the country, visiting different areas relating to their forests and forest management practices. The second fieldtrip was this past year to Croatia and the Czech Republic, to visit and learn about the different forests types and ecosystems there. Different generous and welcoming people throughout the trip helped us; and, our class was even mentioned in their government newsletter. We got to visit so many wonderful and spectacular places and meet so many interesting people, which broadened my perspective of the world and what other countries are doing in terms of environmental management.

The great thing about being in my program is that we are a small faculty, so we are all on a first name basis with the professors here, and are not just some number or a random face. They want you to succeed and it shows—we can go to them with any problem that we may have, and they will take time to sit down with the student and help them.

Overall, the hands on experience that we get with our program from professors and technicians with real world experience are great. The Environmental Management program was a perfect fit for me, with like-minded people wanting to make a difference and provided me with so many different experiences and opportunities to explore not just the environment but the world as well. 

Photo credit: Alaina Vandervoot