The SVC Bearcats
Saint Vincent College, located in Latrobe, PA, is more than a six-hour drive from Cape May, but that distance hasn’t kept multiple teams of college students from competing in New Jersey Audubon’s World Series of Birding. The college started sending teams in 2017 after long-time participant and mentor, Jim Wilson, called up his alma mater and suggested the idea to ornithology professor Jim Kellam. Dr. Kellam readily agreed, happy to give his students a goal to work toward each spring. Within a few years, Kellam established a 1-credit college course to formalize the work they were doing and integrate it into the life of the college. Many students hear about the course from former participants and take a risk on learning birding skills in exchange for a fun weekend in Cape May. Dr. Kellam said “The course is Pass/Fail, meaning the students don’t get letter grades. They get a passing grade for just showing up to weekly meetings and attending at least one 15-hour birding trip to a nearby State Park.” The trip is meant as a trial run, showing the students how to develop strategies for finding birds in a variety of habitats while under a time limit. Some students take the competition very seriously, while others are a bit overwhelmed by the level of skill needed to be competitive. Most students have no prior birding experience. “That makes it harder for us to place in our division,” says Kellam, “but my goal is to expose students to the benefits that come from birding, both for the humans and for the birds. That’s how we win—by generating a love for birds among a growing number of young people and the acts of conservation that naturally develop from that.” With 37 college students from Saint Vincent having taken part so far, that’s a lot of human potential to affect positive change for the environment.
