Honestly, I almost ended up at NYU studying screenwriting and symphony orchestra (I'm a cellist). I also wanted to work with wildlife since I was quite young, but was a bit torn. What pushed me over into wildlife completely was that I was offered a biology field research opportunity for underrepresented students, that would begin prior to my freshman year in college (at Cornell).

As far as how I decided what to specialize in- I was drawn to wildlife work since I was very very very young- I grew up in Queens, NY and as a child I chased cicadas, pigeons, cockroaches, and squirrels around, imagining I had my own nature show. When I got to undergrad (major: Natural Resources with focus in Applied Ecology), I followed every wildlife-related opportunity that I could, and ended up doing my senior thesis on herring gulls on an island off the coast of Maine. On the side, I kept up my interest in music/arts/creative stuff through taiko drumming, guitar/singing performance, etc., and did fencing- so in other words I tried to keep my options open and follow my interests in as many directions as possible.

For my carnivore research, again it was all about networking and following opportunities related to my interests. I kept in touch with professors that were working on projects that I was interested in, and worked for them after college, etc. In general, though, the common thread is that I've always worked on misunderstood animals, I've always wanted to work with wildlife, and I've always been interested in science communication and other creative endeavors --- it's just that the path has never been predictable.