Of all the universities Jacey Wonderly visited, Ohio Northern was the only one that embraced her dream of working in natural history. While other schools offered little encouragement, ONU offered a path forward.
“I was told, ‘You can do that. We will help you,’” Jacey recalls.
Now a senior honors student double-majoring in history and environmental & field biology, Jacey is immersed in biology, zoology, field work, specimen preservation, historical research, and museum studies, to prepare for her ideal career.
She’s been fascinated by prehistoric animals ever since she was little.
“I like the puzzle of it,” she explains. “Fossil records are incomplete and we only have so many specimens to work with, which leaves lots of unanswered questions.”
When she was in elementary school, her parents took her on an inspiring trip to The Mammoth Site in Hot Springs, South Dakota, an active paleontological excavation and accredited museum that holds the world’s largest concentration of mammoth remains.
This summer brought a “full-circle moment”: Jacey was one of just 11 students nationwide selected for a prestigious internship at The Mammoth Site. During her time there, she participated in active excavations, assisted with Glyptal consolidant removal from fragile bones, educated visitors, performed micro-picking through sediment, cataloged and identified frog bones, and designed a hypothetical museum exhibit.
“That first weekend in Hot Springs, I just kept thinking, ‘Wow, I’ve been here before, and now I’m actually working here. I get to be the person inspiring the next generation.’”
Back at ONU, Jacey continues to gain relevant, hands-on experience. She’s assisting biology professor Dr. Kat Krynak with research on endangered plains garter snakes and creating a digital catalog of the department’s extensive specimen collection for her senior capstone project.
Looking ahead, Jacey is considering graduate school to study paleoornithology, the evolutionary history of prehistoric birds.
She’s grateful for the rich opportunities she’s found at ONU “You always hear about the research being done at large universities,” she says. “But at ONU, we’re doing stuff just as cool.”
