Kaylie Campbell
Kaylie Campbell studied to be a nurse and worked in logistics, but she found her passion for wildlife biology in the Forestry, Wildlife, and Fisheries program at Cleveland State Community College. After graduating on Friday with an associate degree, she will continue at the University of Tennessee Knoxville in January.
Ms. Campbell started college in North Carolina after graduating high school. She pursued a nursing degree for three years until she took a nursing skills practical lab and realized she didn’t want to be a nurse.
Later, she worked in transportation logistics while her husband went to college for a second degree.
“I was good at the logistics position; I am detail oriented and good with people,” said Ms. Campbell. “But, I hated every second of it. I felt like a part of me was dying every single day. I had to go back to the drawing board and back to what always makes me happy. That is being outside.”
Living in Chattanooga now, Ms. Campbell discovered that Cleveland State offered the FWF program; she talked to Robert Brewer, professor and director of the Greg A. Vital Center for Natural Resources and Conservation. Although Ms. Campbell expected to go into environmental science, Prof. Brewer saw her as a wildlife biologist. He encouraged her to start the FWF program, where she would get experience in all the fields, then she could choose her focus.
With several credits from her previous college transferring and qualifying for the Tennessee Reconnect scholarship, Ms. Campbell started classes at Cleveland State in the fall of 2023. TN Reconnect is a last dollar scholarship that covers most of the tuition and fees for adults who are 23 years and older who have not already completed an associate or bachelor’s degree.
Ms. Campbell said, “I’m older than most students. It has been odd, but in a fun way. I am a lot more established in my adult life, so I am not going to make the same mistakes I made the first college run around. I am not afraid to sit in the front row and ask questions, even if they sound stupid to someone else. I’m here to learn. My experience has changed since going to school as a teenager.”
Ms. Campbell was the vice president of The Student Wildlife Society at Cleveland State. She not only gained a new group of friends, she also logged over 200 hours of volunteer service. The club supports projects with the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, the East TN Retriever Club and other organizations.
Connecting with professionals made an impact on Ms. Campbell. The Forestry, Wildlife and Fisheries class was her favorite. The class takes several field trips to explore all different careers. Throughout the term, the class visited professionals with agencies such as the U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and TWRA, learning about careers in forestry, ornithology, fisheries, biology and more.
“We talk to people about their day to day and how they got there,” said Ms. Campbell. “I realized that I like forestry, but I was more fascinated with wildlife than I thought. I just never had any interaction with it.” Now, Ms. Campbell plans to be a certified wildlife biologist and work with bats.
“Kaylie has a passion for everything related to wildlife biology,” said Prof. Brewer. “She has been a wonderful student and leader in our Wildlife Society. I have no doubt she will fulfill her dream of working as a wildlife biologist.”
“I think if I had talked to more professionals early on, I would have realized that nursing was not for me,” said Ms. Campbell. “That has been so important to me now. It’s not how much money you make or how easy the job is, or how many job offers there are. I want to know what you do every single day. I can do any job, but I want to be happy doing it.”
For more information about the FWF program, email rbrewer@clevelandstatecc.edu.
Forestry, Wildlife and Fisheries friends before the Fall Commencement ceremony are pictured, left to right: Morgan King, Russell White, Campbell and Hadley Moree.