AOU - Celebrating 125 years of American Ornithology: 1883-2008.
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Student Activities

Orientation for New Students

Attending a large national conference for the first time can be overwhelming. New students often miss key events because they didn’t know where to go or what to attend. To help first time attendees get oriented at the annual AOU meeting, the SAC organizes an Orientation for New Students. Generally the orientation is a short presentation addressing basic meeting etiquette, how to approach famous ornithologists, and how to best budget time and activities during the meeting.

Student-Professional Ornithologist Dinner

For students, meeting and interacting with professional ornithologists is an important aspect of the AOU meeting. However, professional conferences can sometimes be challenging environments for students to locate and approach professional ornithologists in their area of research interest.

The student-professional ornithologist dinner provides students with a unique opportunity to meet informally to discuss common research interests with professional ornithologists. Students are seated with professional ornithologists in their area of research interest over dinner, and the high ratio of professionals to students (typically 1:2) offers an unprecedented opportunity for interaction.

The dinner is typically organized into these research areas:

The dinner is open to all students who are current members of the AOU. The Student Affairs Committee typically posts details for the dinner on this website about a month before the meeting, in addition to announcements sent directly to members and posted on the Ornithological Newsletter and the student listserv .

Past Dinners

The 3rd annual student-professional social was held as a joint event with other NAOC member societies and featured a record crowd in attendance: over 300 registered students and 80 professionals! Unlike past years, students could move among tables to maximize the number of professionals with whom they interacted. Funding for this event was provided by the American Ornithologists' Union, Cooper Ornithological Society, Wilson Ornithological Society, Society of Canadian Ornithologists, Association of Field Ornithologists, The Waterbird Society, and the North American Ornithological Conference.


Students attend the third annual Student-Professional Ornithologist Dinner.

Workshop

The AOU Student Affairs Committee (SAC) organizes a professional development workshop for students at each annual meeting. Generally these workshops allow students to learn skills and techniques from a panel of professional ornithologists. Each year the SAC assembles a panel of professionals to discuss a different topic. Students hear a short presentation from each member of the panel and are then given an opportunity to ask the panel questions about the topic. The SAC is currently organizing a workshop for the 2008 meeting and will post details soon

Past Workshops

2007: The Careers in Ornithology workshop 1) provided information about job opportunities both within and outside academia, and 2) provided tips on how to be a successful job candidate.

2006: A 4-member panel discussed how to write a successful grant proposal. The panel was comprised of Tom Martin (USGS Montana Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit, University of Montana), Kim Sullivan (Utah State University), Peter Dunn (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee), and Jordan Karubian (Latin America Director Center for Tropical Research International Training and Research Center - Ecuador, UCLA Institute of the Environment). Resources provided at the workshop are now available online:

2005: Spencer Sealy, current editior of the Auk, led a workshop on how to review manuscripts.

Student-Professional Ornithologist Mentor Program

This program is designed to pair students with established ornithologists in an effort to build camaraderie among people working in the same field, help students learn keys to success, and provide students a contact person with whom to confer throughout the meeting. Students get to chose from a list of professional ornithologists who have volunteered for the mentor program, and each student is paired with one professional from their 'wish list'. Discussion topics are provided to the students in order to get the conversation rolling and then it is up to the pairings to take it from there! Pairings are made about a month before the annual AOU meeting, allowing the mentor pairs to contact one another and begin conversations that will continue at the meeting.

Here's what past participants had to say about the mentor program:

"This was a great experience. I really appreciate the opportunities provided to students during these meetings to meet and associate with many people who, up until this point, were simply names at the tops of papers." Tyler Flockhart, student, University of Saskatchewan, 2006

"The program makes a new connection that exposes the student to a new set of people that likely overlaps very little with a student's previous sets of connections and thus quickly broadens exposure to those working in the student's field." Dr. Jeff Walters, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 2005 

Student Quiz Bowl

The student quiz bowl is one of the most entertaining and well attended activities at the annual meeting. The quiz bowl is a Jeopardy style competition that challenges teams of students to test their ornithological knowledge. Students compete for excellent prizes while having a great time. All students are encouraged to form a 3 person team and register for this event, or simply attend to enjoy the competition.” Information about the 2008 quiz bowl will be posted soon.

Past Quiz Bowls

2006: The 1st annual AOU student quiz bowl was a huge success! Approximately 250 audience members were glued to their seats as they watched nine teams compete for over $1000 in prizes provided by Eagle Optics, Forestry Suppliers, Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, University of California Press , and Princeton University Press. The winning team hailed from Arizona State University and was comprised of Matthew Toomey, Melissa Meadows, and Bobby Fokidis; each member of the winning team received a pair of Audubon 8x42 Equinox binoculars.


Winners, organizers and volunteers of the first annual Student Quiz Bowl.