 “There are many schools where a science major is all science
courses,” said Dr. Daniel Schadler, Professor of Biology at
Oglethorpe since 1975. “They have a lot of technical training,
but technology changes. The Oglethorpe liberal arts background comes
in handy and prepares students for lifetime learning.”
The city of Atlanta also offers many opportunities to
Oglethorpe students, both inside and outside of the classroom.
“One of the greatest resources available to Oglethorpe
students is the city of Atlanta,” Schadler said. “I actively try
to include off campus activities in my courses, which has led to
some remarkable opportunities!”
Schadler frequently takes students from his Fresh Focus class
and his graduate education “Inquiring Into Science” course to
the Atlanta Botanical Garden for their Alston Lecture series. In
2000, he was able to host an author at Oglethorpe prior to her
lecture at the garden. That evening, Dr. Margaret Lowman
mentioned Oglethorpe’s wonderful hospitality in her public
lecture.
Another outreach program connected Oglethorpe students with
the Sea Turtle Conservation Program, run out of the University
of Georgia’s School of Ecology. “The director was missing some
critical data for his studies, and Oglethorpe students were seen
as highly desirable for his work,” Schadler explained. Rich
Fischer ’86 worked on the Jekyll Island project for four summers
and went on to earn his doctorate in ecology. Frank Russo-Alesi
’86 and Bill Sharpe ’86 spent one summer with the program.
Oglethorpe’s science majors have gone on to graduate programs
at Yale, Princeton and Emory and jobs with the Centers for
Disease Control, National Institutes of Health, Food and Drug
Administration and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, to
name a few.
Why have Petrels had such success? Credit personal attention,
Atlanta experiences and the well-rounded and challenging
academic program offered at Oglethorpe.
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