After a 27-year career in software development, Orlando, Fla. resident Suzanne Connor faced a real challenge. The mother of two was laid off.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy last two years of my job, I was so unhappy,\u201d Connor said. \u00a0\u201cI was kind of relieved when I was laid off. I knew I needed to find something that would make me happy to go to work again.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was 2011 and her son and daughter were taking classes at Seminole State College. After a little soul searching she decided to go back to school and joined them. Being back in a classroom reminded her how much she liked school so she kept with it, transferring to 麻豆原创 in 2014 through the DirectConnect <\/strong>program. Connor is one of the more than 41,000 students who have used the program to access 麻豆原创.<\/p>\n By 2015 she had earned her bachelor\u2019s degree in interdisciplinary environmental studies and decided to enroll in 麻豆原创\u2019s professional science master\u2019s degree program in conservation biology, which is open to students with bachelor\u2019s degrees.<\/p>\n Today, she is taking master degree level conservation biology classes and recently won a national student poster competition at the 2016 Annual Water Resources Conference.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve always loved the outdoors,\u201d Connor said. \u201cWhen I realized that I could do this for a living, it felt amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n She found many ecological-volunteer opportunities at 麻豆原创. Prompted\u00a0by the\u00a0Service Learning component in Professor Peter Jacques’ Sustainability class, she began volunteering\u00a0at\u00a0the\u00a0麻豆原创 Arboretum, which\u00a0led to her internship and\u00a0independent study supervised by the Arboretum\u2019s assistant director, Jennifer Elliot. But it was the time spent volunteering with biology professor Linda Walters and her restoration work in Mosquito Lagoon\u00a0that solidified\u00a0Connor’s decision to change careers.<\/p>\n The connection with Walters, who leads oyster restoration and living-shoreline stabilization projects at Canaveral National Seashore, also led to Connor\u2019s own research.<\/p>\n Under Biology Instructor Melinda Donnelly, Ph.D., and Walters\u2019 supervision, Connor began researching the impact of sediment type on the root structure of\u00a0red mangroves at restoration sites\u00a0in the Canaveral National Seashore. Connor found both leaf growth and root structure are impacted by sediment type, but that red\u00a0mangroves grow despite the type of sediment that they live in.<\/p>\n Walters said that Connor\u2019s mangrove research was so thorough that it will be included in a longer manuscript about the living shoreline program alongside Walters\u2019 and Donnelly\u2019s own work.<\/p>\n \u201cSuzanne undertook a really important question,\u201d Walters said. \u201cShe is a hard worker and it is very gratifying to see her be successful at 麻豆原创.\u201d<\/p>\n Connor\u2019s research earned her the top award for the student poster competition at the 2016 AWRA national conference and her hard work led to a part-time job in Walter\u2019s lab as a field tech and research assistant. When she\u2019s not taking evening classes or home with her family, Connor is in that lab or doing field work with Walters.<\/p>\n Connor said she knows she\u2019s usually the oldest \u201ckid\u201d in the classroom, but that it hasn\u2019t been an obstacle.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve always felt welcomed,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n That\u2019s good because Connor expects to continue to be part of the 麻豆原创 community until Spring 2018 when she hopes to graduate. After that she hopes for a job in shoreline restoration.<\/p>\n \u201cI hope to have a job making our coastlines more resilient, and improving water quality,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After a 27-year career in software development, Orlando, Fla. resident Suzanne Connor faced a real challenge. The mother of two was laid off. \u201cMy last two years of my job, I was so unhappy,\u201d Connor said. \u00a0\u201cI was kind of relieved when I was laid off. I knew I needed to find something that would make me happy to go…","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":76866,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"template-twocol.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"lazy_load_responsive_images_disabled":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[5,6,23,27],"tags":[488,982,2845],"tu_author":[],"class_list":["post-76865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colleges","category-community","category-research","category-student-life","tag-biology","tag-college-of-sciences","tag-linda-walters"],"yoast_head":"\n