Career Timeline
2012
In 2012 I began my undergraduate degree at Vancouver Island University (VIU). While I was always fascinated by nature, I didn’t grow up knowing examples of women in wildlife careers. It wasn’t until the end of my second year when I realized I was obsessed with the environmental courses I was taking and that I could make a career of it. I switched into a Geography major, specializing in Natural Resource Management, and I never looked back.
2014
In 2014 I started volunteering with a student-led group on campus called Awareness of Climate Change through Education and Research. I learned how to communicate the science of climate change through the use of scientific demonstrations. After volunteering for 2 years, I took on a paid part-time Coordinator position. Thus began my love of climate change communication.
2015
In the fall semester of 2015, I began an independent research study (GEOG 491) that sparked my interest in ecological research. I investigated how an endangered mammal may experience habitat range shifts in the future due to changing climate conditions. My world cracked open to the possibility of a career that include both researching and communicating the ways that climate change was affecting our natural world.
2017
In 2017 I graduated with a Bachelor of Arts. Briefly before that I began working at the Mount Arrowsmith Biosphere Region Research Institute as a work-op student. I quickly moved through the ranks and by the time I moved on from my position in the summer of 2019, I was the Assistant Research & Community Engagement Coordinator. I was supervising students, planning research conferences, successfully applying to funding opportunities, and leading all terrestrial research, including a project that attempted to understand how changing climatic conditions may influence the phenology of coastal native plants.
2019
Knowing my research training was not complete, I began a Master of Science degree at the University of Alberta (UAlberta) in the fall of 2019. I also completed a Science Communication Fellowship at the Telus World of Science Edmonton, helping to further develop my skillset in science communication.
2021
In 2021 I began working as a Teaching Assistant for the Department of Biological Sciences at UAlberta.
In November 2021 I took my first trip to Churchill, Manitoba as a volunteer Field Ambassador for Polar Bears International (PBI). Going from learning about the subarctic from a behind a computer screen to seeing it in real life was life-changing – my deep love for Churchill had begun.
At the end of 2021, I moved back to British Columbia (Canada) to be closer to family and complete my degree remotely. Much to my mother’s constant worry, I also started solo hiking and camping.
2022
2022 was a busy year. I travelled to Churchill again in February and in August to volunteer with PBI. I worked full-time on my thesis throughout the year, while also working my first season as a Conservation Tour Guide for the Osoyoos Desert Centre (ODC).
I defended my thesis in September and officially finished my MSc degree in November, but I had already jetted off to the tropics, spending a month completing a Wildlife Conservation and Animal Husbandry Volunteer Internship at Alturas Wildlife Sanctuary in Dominical, Costa Rica.
Photograph by Alessa De Zaldo
2023
In 2023 I worked my second season at the ODC, while also taking on paid Field Ambassador contracts with PBI. I travelled to Svalbard, Norway in the summer and helped to teach the public about polar bears and climate change in PBI’s newest pop-up interpretive centre. Seeing the Arctic for the first time was an experience I will never forget. I also went back to Churchill with PBI for 6 weeks in the fall.
In 2023 I continued working on my thesis, but with the intention of submitting it for publication. I submitted it to Arctic Science at the end of the year and it is currently in review. In the summer I began reaching out to potential supervisors in hopes of starting a PhD program in the fall of 2024. My autumn was full of writing and submitting applications to PhD programs and funding opportunities.
2024
Stay tuned for what I’ll be up to this year!
Larissa Thelin 