- University News Archive - 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock /news-archive/tag/reptile-rescue-center/ 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock Tue, 09 May 2017 17:20:20 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock grad going to med school to help rural communities /news-archive/2017/05/09/dustin-brown/ Tue, 09 May 2017 17:20:20 +0000 /news/?p=67122 ... 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock grad going to med school to help rural communities]]> 鈥淪o many of my friends in high school did not get to go to the doctor,鈥 Brown said. 鈥淲ith a community clinic, I think I would get to spend more time changing my patients鈥 lives, educating them, and getting to know them better.鈥 The 23-year-old will graduate May 13 with bachelor鈥檚 degrees in biology and interdisciplinary studies. He also earned his credentials as a Certified Nonprofit Professional. Brown will attend the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in the fall. After becoming a doctor, he plans to give back by working at medical clinics in small towns just like the one where he was raised. 鈥淚 want to work in a community-based health care clinic that will provide services for underserved communities and people that can鈥檛 afford health care,鈥 Brown said. 鈥 I want to make sure that everyone has access to health care.鈥 Brown came to 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock on a scholarship through the highly competitive Chancellor鈥檚 Leadership Corps, which taught him the value of community service. Brown is a volunteer at the Reptile Rescue Center, where he works with rescued turtles and reptiles. At the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Brown volunteers with myeloma patients. 鈥淚t鈥檚 made me realize how important volunteering is to contributing as a citizen to your community,鈥 he said. One of his most memorable volunteer experiences was in New York City, where he spent the summer of 2014 volunteering at, a nonprofit organization that inspires the next generation of diverse technology leaders from underserved communities. 鈥淭hey do a summer coding program,鈥 Brown said. 鈥淚 helped create program logistics for a young entrepreneur summit, where students create social apps that do good in their own communities. Some of the kids even earned jobs right out of high school with the coding skills they learned at this summer camp.鈥 Brown has also been active on campus, as a member of Alpha Epsilon Delta Pre-Professional Honor Society, Delta Chi Fraternity, Friday Fellows, Nonprofit Leadership Student Association, Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society, and University Science Scholars. In summer 2016, Brown participated in the INBRE Research Fellowship, spending 10 weeks at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences researching the effects of Metformin, a drug used to treat Type II diabetes, on endometrial cancer. 鈥淭here are a lot of research partnerships with people at 糖心Vlog传媒MS that most students don鈥檛 know about,鈥 he said. 鈥淏ecause of the proximity to 糖心Vlog传媒MS, 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock is able to offer unique research opportunities.鈥 At the end of the summer, his faculty adviser, Dr. Rosalia Simmen from the Department of Physiology and Biophysics, offered him a full-time position as a biomedical research technician. They are now studying the effects of other drugs on endometriosis and endometrial cancer. Brown recently received the Thomas Hogue Memorial Award for Outstanding Undergraduate Research in the Field of Biology and the Martha Couch Memorial Award for Outstanding Senior in Biology from the 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock College of Arts, Letters and Sciences. As his time at 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock comes to a close, Brown is thankful he chose to come to a university that has taught him to be more open minded and open to new experiences. 鈥淚 think 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock as a whole has helped me grow into a positive person that wants to do good in the world,鈥 he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 shaped me into who I am. I don鈥檛 think I would have turned out the same way if I had gone somewhere else.鈥]]> Graduating student Janna Shepherd hones communication, leadership skills for reptile rescue /news-archive/2016/12/16/ualr-janna-shepherd-reptile-rescue/ Fri, 16 Dec 2016 22:05:00 +0000 /news/?p=66007 ... Graduating student Janna Shepherd hones communication, leadership skills for reptile rescue]]> Janna Shepherd has run the only nonprofit reptile rescue center in the state of Arkansas since 2009.聽 The, located just south of Little Rock, has a three-part mission: to rescue surrendered, injured, and abused reptiles; to rehabilitate rescued reptiles; and to educate the public about reptiles in captivity and in the wild. In 2010, Shepherd decided to finish her college education to learn more about the skills necessary to run a nonprofit organization. The Nonprofit Leadership Studies program at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock initially attracted Shepherd to the university, since it was the only program in the state she could find that catered to the nonprofit management education she was looking for. While ultimately minoring in nonprofit leadership studies, Shepherd was inspired by a professor to complete a bachelor鈥檚 degree in speech communication as well. 鈥淲hen I took advanced public speaking with Dr. Kristen McIntyre, she told me that speech communication would be useful for every aspect of running my nonprofit,鈥 Shepherd said. While at 糖心Vlog传媒LR, Shepherd learned the skills necessary to manage a nonprofit organization, including financial management, fundraising, and volunteer management, through the Nonprofit Leadership Studies program. In turn, through her speech communication coursework, she learned how valuable communication skills are in the day-to-day running of the Reptile Rescue Center. 鈥淚t鈥檚 important to communicate effectively to manage volunteers and staff and to deal with the public as clients and in the education programs that we put on,鈥 she said. Shepherd鈥檚 professor, Dr. McIntyre, associate professor of applied communication, described Shepherd as a model of professionalism, who was the first student to win the Department of Applied Communication鈥檚 Making a Difference Award in 2013. 鈥淚 think when Janna decided to earn her college degree, that was it. She knew why she was in college and what she wanted to achieve,鈥 McIntyre said. 鈥淪he came to class on time and prepared. She turned in outstanding work. She supported her classmates, and she spoke passionately about the Reptile Rescue Center.鈥

Living a life dedicated to animals

Shepherd is no stranger to working with animals. The 32-year-old has previously worked as an assistant manager at Pet Country in Conway and as a volunteer docent and animal caretaker at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, the Museum of Discovery, and the Little Rock Zoo. She has also volunteered for many years at Hearts and Hooves in Sherwood, and more recently at Harmony in Hooves in Benton, where she led therapeutic riding lessons, cared for horses, and maintained rider, therapist, and volunteer safety. The former volunteer firefighter is also an accomplished equestrian and competes at shows with the Arkansas Hunter Jumper Association. 聽 Shepherd owns several rescue dogs, a cat, and a horse, but decided to turn her attention to a neglected area of animal rescue. 鈥淭here are plenty of cat and dog rescues, but there were no reptile rescues in the state,鈥 she said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 where the need was, and I had the experience to do it.鈥 The Reptile Rescue Center is now a sanctuary for more than 130 reptiles, representing 30 different species. In the upper right photo,聽Janna Shepherd holds one a rescued albino burmese python that lives at the Reptile Rescue Center. Photo by Lonnie Timmons III/糖心Vlog传媒LR Communications.聽]]>