Unity College is proud to announce three new partnerships that will provide unparalleled opportunities for hands-on experiential learning for students studying in the college’s top majors – Wildlife Conservation, Marine Biology & Sustainable Aquaculture, and Animal Health & Behavior.

Over the last 4 months, Unity College has established formal partnerships with Discover Eden, The Houston Humane Society & Texas Wildlife Rehabilitation Center, and Wild Care Inc. Each of these organizations serves as a site for experiential learning, giving students the opportunity to develop their skills in the field and make an impact in their communities.

“We are thrilled to announce three new partnerships that will bring the classroom to life and provide our students with invaluable hands-on experiences right in their own communities. This is a major step forward in our mission as America’s Environmental College to provide education that is not only academically rigorous, but also practical and relevant” said Unity College President, Dr. Melik Peter Khoury.

“We are serving a non-traditional population across the country, and we want to give our students the opportunity to develop their skills in the field,” says Director of Career Placement & Corporate Partnerships, Wendi Richards.

Each partner organization is in a different region, providing students with a diverse range of experiences. Wild Care Inc. in Cape Cod is part of a dedicated network of non-profit organizations saving coastal and migratory songbirds, endangered species of turtles, and other small mammals.

“In other organizations, students may not even get to interact with the animals, but here, students may walk in and be handed a baby squirrel,” says Executive Director Stephanie Ellis.

Unity College students are typically non-traditional – juggling work and family with school, so adding a typical 3-month unpaid internship is not always an option.

“When looking for partners, we ask organizations to be flexible, inclusive, and accessible,” says Richards.

Discover Eden, based in South Africa, provides Unity College students the opportunity to travel internationally and explore wildlife conservation, marine biology, and ecology in a structured learning environment while joining multiple organizations as they work with multiple species including cheetahs, lions, and sharks. Discover Eden provides an experience that is part classroom and part adventure safari. “Students, who may never have been outside the US, see the types of work, careers, and organizations that function to preserve wildlife and their habitats in other countries. This broadens the scope and understanding of what they can do in their chosen field and helps them establish a professional network internationally,” says Richards.

“We are working to establish more partnerships that open a world of opportunities to our students,” says Richards.

For more information or to become a Unity College partner contact Wendi Richards, wrichards@unity.edu.