Stefano Ianiro and Emily Sobkowiak – Environmental and Wildlife Management 2017

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Dedicated to the environment and doing what they love to do.

Stefano Ianiro grew up on the West Island of Montreal with a forest right outside his back door. "As a kid, I knew I wanted to work with wildlife. I spent most of my time playing in that forest and exploring its wildlife, and always knew nature would be part of what I wanted to do in life."

Because he was interested in wildlife photography, Stefano's first CEGEP diploma was in Advanced Creative Arts. However, he soon realized he wanted to actually know about animals and wildlife and not just photograph them. So, he chose to study at Vanier College because it is the only English CEGEP offering the Environmental and Wildlife Management Program.

The program has given him the perfect blend of multidisciplinary studies he was seeking. "It's a great mix of a lot of theory and lab work in plant and animal biology and six months of hands-on training at the Lachute field station where you directly touch on all types of animals – fish, birds, mammals, insects, amphibians, reptiles and plants."

"Finally, once you pass your final semester, the last part of your program is a 6-week internship that can be anywhere in the world. You can find the place to do an internship or the program department finds a place for you. I chose to do my internship in Belize at the Toucan Ridge Ecology Education Society – TREES. It was fantastic! My girlfriend Emily Sobkowiak who was also in the Vanier program did her internship there as well. At the end of our internship they asked us to stay on a few extra weeks to help with more work."

"Our internship consisted of a study of bats. We set up very fine mist nets that trapped bats. We then weighed each bat, measured its wing size and identified its species. We spent 3 to 4 hours a night for 6 weeks catching and identifying bats to know the species composition in a given area. We would also spend another few hours in the morning doing some bird banding, meaning we caught and tagged birds that could be tracked later."

"What's nice about doing an internship in Belize is there is a lot to do and they have a limited number of staff. The needs are diverse and they are open to proposals. Given that the Vanier program covers fish, insects, birds, and other species, if you have an idea of what you want to do during your internship, TREES is open to it."

"Another great thing about the Vanier program and the final semester at the field station is that when you graduate you go into most jobs with more outdoor experience than university students. You also know if outdoor work suits you. If you cannot work in heat, rain, cold, and insects, then fieldwork is not for you. Biologists do not want to work with complainers or people who are unmotivated because it takes a toll on others members in the group. You have to be there 100% or you will be putting animals at risk. You have to enjoy working outside and have the right mind set for hands-on work with animals."

Since graduating, Stefano and Emily have been doing contract work for TREES, going back and forth between Montreal and Belize. "At first the contracts were small but they have grown. They are all-expenses paid contracts that have included taking photos for TREES, doing some videos for them and some social media."

Currently, Stefano and Emily are living in Nova Scotia, which is now their home base as they continue to travel for environmental consulting and contract work elsewhere around the world. Emily in particular is interested in work related to the ocean and marine life. In fact, while in Belize, she designed a blueprint for creating a marine field station on a nearby island that she hopes to see implemented at some point in the future. Meanwhile, Stefano is still doing photography and videos for his Vlogging and Instagram sites. Check out his work:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stefanoianirophotography

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/stefanoianiro

"His work is absolutely amazing and he has the potential to go very far with this, not to mention that he is a kind-hearted, gentle, lovely person," says Brandee Diner, Coordinator of the Environmental and Wildlife Management Program.