Mario Colon, B.S. 2013

A Los Angeles native, Mario Colon loves nothing more than being in nature, completely cut off from society. His practicum project with the U.C. Natural Reserve System provided that kind of natural immersion during its exhaustive investigation of 665 endangered species. “I was camping on these cliff top reserves all over the state and getting in there with the weeds, bugs, lizards, birds and plants,” Colon says. “It’s a living laboratory and my project helped me know for sure this is what I want to dedicate my life to.” Colon wants to bring likeminded people together to work on land range management and reserve design. “I don’t want to be in the lab pipetting, but on the ground applying what I’ve learned in class to see if it works, and makes sense.”