BU student wins Placement & International Fieldwork Prize

Date: 16 February 2012

Natalie Kozakiewicz has been awarded Placement and International Fieldwork prize, for her placement at Beale Park.

The prize of £100 was given to the student who produced the best poster showcasing their placement experience. The winner was voted for by fellow students from the School of Applied Sciences.

Beale Park is a non profit charitable trust in Berkshire committed to the conservation of rare and endangered species. Whilst there Natalie was able to utilise the skills she had learnt so far in her degree and be more hands on with the animals, which included rare breeds such as Cameroon Sheep, Zebu and St Vincent Agouti.

Natalie said: “The experience I enjoyed the most was working with the Ring-tailed Lemurs and Squirrel Monkeys. I was able to interact with these species on a closer level whilst feeding and cleaning out their enclosures. From these activities I am really eager to study more about primates and looking forward to the primate behaviour unit in the third year.”

She added “I think my strengths were working well with fellow volunteers, a skill necessary for working within a team. We were able to work well together and got the jobs designated to us done with good time but also to a satisfactory standard. Another strength would be with appraisal. Through this I gained confidence in myself to ask for more duties that would challenge me. It was quite frightening to work with animals that I had never seen before yet the encounters were priceless.”