At Michigan Technological University, students in the College of Forest Resources and Environmental Science are known for getting their boots dirty as they study the natural world. Senior forestry student Veronica Blissick's boots trekked all over Michigan's Lower Peninsula this summer, gathering mud and experience with a variety of fungi, flora and fauna — including Smokey the Bear, who turned 80 this year.
Blissick spent her summer as a forestry student assistant with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR). The internship started at the Baldwin DNR office, where she worked as part of an outreach team. Blissick got up close and personal with Smokey, educating the next generation of wildlife enthusiasts.
"There were a ton of kids who would be walking by the outreach tables, not very interested in what the 'grown-ups' were doing, but then they'd see Smokey and they would just light up," said Blissick '26. "All of the sudden there was a herd of kids asking about what the DNR had to say."
DNR Forest Health Forester Cheryl Nelson, who earned her bachelor's in forestry from Michigan Tech in 1996, led Blissick and Baldwin DNR employees in outreach at Ludington State Park and the Sturgeon Festival in Port Huron. The events educate the public about invasive species, native insects and diseases that impact forest management.
"Veronica had great energy and was very happy talking to people," Nelson said. "She was quick to learn and reteach the information to visitors at those events."
Blissick didn't know she would be working with Michigan Tech alumni until she arrived for the internship. On long drives between sites with DNR Foresters Jim Park '18 and Todd Lewis '16, she gained educational, career and simple life advice.
"They related what we were doing to what I was learning at Tech, and they also gave me a new perspective on what I would be doing after college," said Blissick.
During her internship, Blissick learned that one of the keys to gaining new experiences is speaking up. When wildlife professionals mentioned goose banding at multiple locations, Blissick told them how cool that sounded and was invited to come along.
"Even though I was the forestry intern, the forester and wildlifers really wanted me to explore my likes and dislikes within all natural resource career paths," said Blissick.
She visited multiple locations with the wildlife team, including Camp Grayling, where she got to kayak and push the geese across a swampy pond area into the pen where they were scooped up to be banded. This wildlife encounter inspired her to pick up a minor in ecology when she returned to Michigan Tech.
This connection with wildlifers at the Baldwin field office paid off in more than one chance to get hands-on with Michigan's wild creatures. When the office caught a live bear in one of their traps, Park drove her to the site for a once-in-a-lifetime experience. As DNR professionals weighed, tagged and collared the bear while carefully monitoring his temperature and breathing for signs of stress, Blissick and other interns helped take measurements.
"It was so awesome to be able to get close and personal with a real-life bear like that," Blissick said. "How many people can say they've touched a bear's paw, or counted his breaths? I am very lucky to say that I have."
Blissick's adventures didn't just fall into her lap, and she encourages her fellow students to take action, jump on opportunities and seek out real-world experiences in fields outside of their comfort zone. Though she once saw college as a stepping stone between high school and her career, a combination of summer experiences and guidance from Michigan Tech Professor Andrew Burton's natural resources professional course changed her perspective.
"The only way I will be able to be confident when I pick my future full-time job is if I have a better scope of what each career path entails," said Blissick. "I know I'm going to be working for the rest of my life. Now is the time to volunteer and go adventuring and explore all the possibilities."
Michigan Technological University is a public research university founded in 1885 in Houghton, Michigan, and is home to nearly 7,500 students from more than 60 countries around the world. Consistently ranked among the best universities in the country for return on investment, Michigan’s flagship technological university offers more than 120 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in science and technology, engineering, computing, forestry, business, health professions, humanities, mathematics, social sciences, and the arts. The rural campus is situated just miles from Lake Superior in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, offering year-round opportunities for outdoor adventure.
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