In honour of the beginning of the school year and the next round of November 2015 graduations, this piece focuses on Emily Sunter, one of our students expected to graduate this November.
This past Forestry Undergraduate Society (FUS) president did not choose Forestry initially, but growing up with forests and animals playing a large role in her life, it was a natural fit. Born and raised in the Comox Valley on Vancouver Island, the forests were her backyard and having spent a large amount of time with animals, working and volunteering for the SPCA for almost 12 years and working for vet clinics, she always knew she wanted her career to focus on them. While most of her work had been with domestic animals, she hoped to work with wildlife.
Emily applied to UBC with the intention of going into wildlife biology, but found out that that her grades were not quite high enough to get into the Faculty of Science. She ended up being accepted instead to her second option, Forestry. However, in her first semester after sitting in Forestry professor Peter Arcese’s class for just an hour once a week, she realized she was having more fun and was more interested in it then anything she’d ever done before in school. After a long conversation with Peter, she decided to stay in Forestry and focus on forest sciences and wildlife ecology, a decision she is very glad she made. She found the classes and research interesting and flexible, and is very grateful for the amount and type of practical skills she now has. Emily also appreciated the variety of students that she met while in Forestry, who were diverse in culture, age, maturity and interests.
Starting as the Forest Sciences Representative for the FUS, she held the role of president last year and she found it to be an incredible experience. If professors, staff or students had questions, they often came to her first as she was the face that everybody seemed to know in the building. It was also a humbling experience, both to have a lot of people hope that you can help them, and to be able to make an impact. During her year, they started a bursary to help send students to the CIF Ring Ceremony. Also, with the help of Student Services staff, they organized more events geared towards first year students to build a feeling of community.
Outside of Emily’s role as FUS president, her accomplishments include receiving the Gerry Burch Scholarship in her second year, being nominated for the “Just Desserts” award and this year, receiving the Student Leader Recognition award, Forest Sciences Award and Gold Medal Award at the CIF 2015 Ring Ceremony.
Her fondest memory of her time at UBC Forestry is the people. “Students and professors here are very together, understanding and open. We all have similar interests. It has something to do with the outdoors, wanting to know more and wanting to make a difference.” Emily’s biggest influences at Forestry include Allan Carroll, her thesis supervisor, along with professors Peter Arcese, Sally Aitken and Student Services Director Chiara Longhi. Their support and guidance all contributed to her figuring out her direction in forestry.
As for Emily’s plans, she just returned from a trip to South America and her future is full of options. She’d love to end up in a smaller town, perhaps working in industry or environmental consulting. Her passion is human/wildlife interactions, and she would love to work towards helping people understand the things we share this earth with, perhaps eventually going back to do research on it as a Master’s degree.
As she approaches graduation, Emily’s final thought before leaving UBC Forestry is a huge thank you! “I will be eternally grateful for the respect and education I received, the conversations I’ve had, and the fun. It has been a long but amazing time in UBC Forestry!”
From Branchlines Fall 2015