Conservation in action
The University’s reputation for excellence in Marine Biology attracted Berta Manzano Rodriguez (BSc Hons 2019) to St Andrews. Now working for Conservation Collective – a global network of environmental foundations – she highlights the variety of work and career opportunities in the field.
I’m originally from Madrid, Spain, and remember visiting St Andrews a couple of times as a child, so I knew a little of the town already when the time came to apply for university. I wanted to pursue a career as a marine biologist and had heard of the University of St Andrews’ reputation for excellence in that field, so it felt like a no-brainer!
When I look back on my time at St Andrews now, I have only wonderful memories. St Andrews gave me my best friends – some of whom (including my partner) I now see daily in London, and some of whom live halfway across the world, and I only see when travelling. It’s remarkable how connected we all feel to our university experience and how much we still talk about it.
Student support, The Scores and the sea
I graduated in marine biology in 2019 and, while I’m not sure I fully appreciated it at the time, the field trips that were part of the curriculum were fantastic opportunities. I will also be forever grateful to the School of Biology for their help when I had to take a health-related leave of absence for a semester. To support me in getting back in sync with the timeline of my course, the School’s flexibility allowed me to move to Costa Rica for a semester to work as a research assistant at a sea turtle conservation project, which ended up being the topic of my dissertation.
If there’s one place I really miss in St Andrews, it’s having a coffee at sunset behind Castlecliffe (the Department of Economics and Finance) on The Scores, looking out to the sea. The view is just amazing.
Conservation Collective
After graduating from St Andrews, I went on to do a Masters in environmental policy-making at UCL. Unfortunately, my studies there coincided with the peak of the Covid-19 lockdowns, which also made searching for a job afterwards a bit demoralising. It wasn’t an easy time.
Fortunately – and unexpectedly – a friend of mind who worked at Blue Marine Foundation told me about a UK-based charity called Conservation Collective that was hiring. Conservation Collective is a global network of local, grassroots environmental foundations working to protect and preserve habitats and biodiversity and build climate resilience. I immediately fell in love with the concept and was thrilled to get the job.
I’m now the programme manager there. I oversee all the projects we support and develop within the network, help report on their impact, and match-make knowledge-sharing opportunities between them.
I feel extremely lucky to work in such a dynamic environment. One day I can be reading the latest report on how Scotland’s west coast is being rewilded with native oysters, and the next I can be writing a pitch to raise funds for a project creating protected ecological corridors for leopards in Sri Lanka to minimise human-wildlife conflicts.
Looking back, I am pleased that I decided to stay in London. I did a few summer internships abroad and it was a hard choice – but the right one – to settle near friends and family. It felt like I was giving up the ‘ocean and sunshine’ lifestyle that everyone associates with marine biologists by not moving overseas to do field work, but I’m glad I chose this path in the long term.
Advice and opportunities
For anyone considering a career in this field, I’d encourage them to check out the work that small, place-based organisations do. You’d be surprised by the number of groups doing amazing conservation work that are desperate for passionate and talented people. The newsletters of organisations such as Blue Marine Foundation, Global Rewilding Alliance or Conservation Jobs are good places to start looking.
I’m now entering my fourth year at Conservation Collective, but I still feel like there is so much for me to learn about within the work that we do. I am excited to continue growing alongside my team (made up completely of women, which is unusual in this line of work!).
In the short term, I’m looking forward to coming back to St Andrews in August for the wedding of two alumni friends!