Hi, I'm Kent Fricke, a junior fisheries and wildlife major in the School of Natural Resources.

I grew up on a farm near Monroe, Nebraska, and hunted and fished a good deal as a child. This made me interested in going into fisheries and wildlife as a career.

Studying in the SNR has allowed me to work for the past two years in the fisheries laboratory with Dr. Ed Peters and assist his research on the endangered pallid sturgeon. I've enjoyed my work in the lab because it offered flexible hours and allowed me to get an idea of what other work was being done by graduate students and professors. Before that, as a student, I was a conservation technician with the state Game and Parks Commission.

Another fundamental experience in the School has been participating in the UNL Wildlife Club. I acquired some leadership experience in high school, and I was able to build on that with the Wildlife Club, becoming its vice president this year. I'll then be president during the 2004-2005 academic year. The club has allowed me to meet other students in our major that I haven't seen in classes. It has also permitted me to work on some issues I care about and add some new experiences to the club's offerings. These have included hunter education training and helping us become more involved in the Game and Parks Commission's Project Wild.

I've wanted to make sure our members see the benefits of being in the club, so I've also helped invite various professionals to speak, as well as helping set up some experiences in capture techniques, often used to put tracking devices on wildlife, and in electro-fishing, shocking fish non-lethally as a monitoring technique.

After graduation, I plan to pursue a master's degree and work in fish and wildlife conservation.