Tune into this episode to hear from Alejandro about his time working in the environmental field from a Marketing perspective. Also hear about his time on the ELB board and experiences running APC Wildlife Photography.
https://news.mongabay.com/
Follow Alejandro on Instagram here:
@apcwildlife15
Check out our website!
Home (el4biodiversity.ca)
Follow us on social media @el4biodiversity for more updates and events!
Tune into this episode to hear from Alejandro about his time working in the environmental field from a Marketing perspective. Also hear about his time on the ELB board and experiences running APC Wildlife Photography.
https://news.mongabay.com/
Follow Alejandro on Instagram here:
@apcwildlife15
Check out our website!
Home (el4biodiversity.ca)
Follow us on social media @el4biodiversity for more updates and events!
Oh, Hey, they're nature lovers. Hello and welcome to the emerging leaders for biodiversity. How do I do this podcast? And environmental queer podcast. This week, we take another inside look at one of ELBs board members, career journeys. Alejandro is the backbone behind ELBs elevate mentorship program. He makes a huge difference connecting young professionals with those who are more experienced in the field as well as many other roles on our board, we're super thankful to have him. Alejandro. Is also a marketing associate at Mongabay and has created his own company called APC wildlife photography. We're excited to learn more about his experiences so far in the fields.
Alejandro:My name is Alejandro Prescott and my pronouns are he, him.
Kandyce:And where are you calling in from today, Alejandro?
Alejandro:I'm currently based in Oxford in the uk.
Kandyce:Awesome.
Alex:Tell us a little bit about yourself, everyone listening at home. Who are you and what exactly do you do?
Alejandro:Good question. It's always a, a difficult one to answer. But I guess if we start from the top I think I'm someone who's obsessed with wildlife and it's led me to where I am today. I work at Manga Bay, which is an environmental and conservation news platform where we, you know, share news all around the world. We have a network of 800 journalists and we really do our best to share independent, unbiased news through there. Focusing on the world's most threatened ecosystems from Nature's Frontline. So you'll see a lot of news about the Amazon, Southeast Asia, but generally we cover everything. The most pressing news on my end. I am, I'm the marketing associate there, so anything that has to do with getting our journalists work in front of the right eyes. That's what I take care of. I also sometimes travel to conferences to give presentations and connect with key partners in the space. And then apart from Monga Bay, I also run APC Wildlife Photography, which is a wildlife photography education platform. There I publish a lot of blogs and content to help inform people about wildlife photography, especially beginners and wildlife photographers on a budget because it is a pretty restrictive hobby and passion due to its high price. So I wanna make sure that people are getting the best information to be able to make the smartest financial decisions they can.
Kandyce:That's awesome, aand.
Alex:Yeah, that sounds great.
Kandyce:In your opinion, why is what you do so important?
Alejandro:I think any environmental work is important in general. However, working in journalism, I think we have a pretty significant role because we're not advocating for the protection of anything. We're just sharing the real hard facts that a lot of people wouldn't see if it weren't for our investigations. So a lot of the work that we do actually, empowers decisions at different levels, whether it's providing the correct information for a community to retake their forest or providing, the correct information for a government and official to make the, the right decision for, let's say, protecting a marine protected area. You know, our journalism has had significant impact over the past few years. And in fact, one of my main projects at Mongabay is writing a blog series called Mongabay Impacts. I basically take information that we've received from stakeholders and show how manga based work has had a real world impact. So I'll give you an example. There was this there was a tiger reserve in tele Ghana state in India. However, there was also proposed mining project for uranium in the same region. And after Manga Bay provided the coverage on that situation and you know, let's say had interviews with, you know, key people working at the protected area, who were against the project and said that it would actually endanger not only the tigers but a lot of the other threatened species in the area it kind of started this media firestorm. So not only did other media outlets pick up our story and cover the situation in tele Ghana state and India itself but also there was a lot of community activism because of it. And eventually the tele state decided to cancel the project. So this is kind of what I mean by providing the correct information for people to make responsible decisions for the environment. We don't sway people any way. We just say, Hey, these are the facts and this is what you're missing.
Kandyce:Right. Completely unbiased and that's awesome. And it must be really cool to be able to. I mean, you're kind of seeing the sad side of some things, but it's cool to be able to work with Tigers, I definitely agree. You know, growing up, like I never really knew exactly what I wanted to do. The only thing I knew that I loved was animals. So it's really great to be able to work with them on a daily basis, even if I'm not seeing them up close. Right. You know, it's just the stories and information that I learned through my colleagues' work.
Alex:I bet it's gotta be incredibly rewarding too, knowing your work is having an impact.
Alejandro:Yeah, that's for sure. I can't wait to do more. In fact, I'm gonna be starting up a video series soon. That's also gonna be tied to Manga Bay Impact, so you'll see my face out there, unfortunately.
Kandyce:very cool. Yeah, I'm very excited to see that. Yeah.
Alex:Since you were just saying you weren't exactly sure what direction you wanted to go in life, how did you get to where you are now? What made you wanna go in this direction?
Alejandro:That's an excellent question. So I think the seed was definitely planted from a young age. You know, I think probably my, interest in wildlife came from my father. I remember we'd watch many, many, many, many like documentaries just when I was a child. And you know, some of my best memories are when he would be like on all fours pretending to be a lion or roaring and stuff in the living room. And I think that's probably where I get my weird passion for imitating animals sounds from, but I won't do that on this episode. But, you know, fast forward to undergrad. I was doing a Bachelor's of Art in in Spanish and Portuguese literature. Also because I think a big influence was my parents because both of them were Spanish literature professors. And it was what I was good at. I really liked it and everything, but it I wasn't as passionate about that as I was about the environment. So in my last I think it was in my fourth year of university, I started taking some more environmental courses informed myself a lot more about climate change, informed myself more about conservation, biology, et cetera. And then I was like, okay, you know, I could take the route where, I continue to do a master's in Spanish or Portuguese literature and then continue on to do a PhD, or I can make a drastic career change. And I'm the kind of person that I feel like I don't really like having doors closed. And I thought that given the degree that I had chosen, I felt like I could do almost anything. So I said, all right, let me look into different master's programs that are interdisciplinary, that are able to cater to people who don't have a strong science background, such as myself. And I found this this master's in biodiversity Conservation and Management at the University of Oxford. And, you know, lo and behold, I can't remember what month it was, maybe April or May in 2017 I received an email that I had gotten accepted. And I was, a bit shocked and a bit torn because I had gotten accepted to Oxford for that program, but also got gotten an offered a scholarship to to University of Toronto and the University of UBC for Spanish literature. It was definitely a tough decision, But in the end I chose Oxford because I was like, dang, if I can get into real conservation and start to understand this landscape, then I think it will be all the better for my career. And worst case scenario, if for some reason I don't like it or it doesn't work out, I can always pursue the literature route later.
Kandyce:I think you definitely made the right choice.
Alejandro:Yeah. I mean, I wrapped up in, we did a masters in I started in 2017, finished in 2018. And then after that, it was a big challenge. It really was a big challenge. You know, cuz I got there and it was, let's say the class was like about 30 people. And I remember, just getting to know my colleagues and stuff like that. We were, we talking, oh, like, oh, what did you study? And they would be like, you know, anthropology, if they came from social sciences or they would come from natural science. Oh, I did, you know, biology, et cetera. And then when they would ask me what I did, I was like, oh, I did you know, Spanish and Portuguese literature. And they're like, oh, you, you don't come from science. And I was like, nope. So, you know, sometimes, the feeling of of being left out was a bit, a bit hard to navigate in the beginning, but it was okay. I figured that out eventually. You know, it's just also kind of believing in yourself and being like, okay, you know, even though I don't have the strong scientific background, these people have, obviously I was selected for a reason and I can make it through. Yeah, that's also like when I realized that, unless you're trying to get into academia, Grades don't really matter that much. I mean I'm not saying you're not supposed to put your best foot forward always. But, you know, I, I don't think, I had unreal expectations going into that program where I was like, I need to get, the same level of grades that I was getting before, but it just wasn't realistic because so many of my classes were, science-based. I was looking at graphs I, I'd never seen in my life you know. Yeah. People weren't talking about these theories. I was like, I have zero clue about this. But when it came to, you know, social science stuff or the writing stuff, the more creative things, I was like a lot better than my colleagues. I was just content to, pass and actually I think I did a little better than I expected. But definitely one of the things I had to fight against during my masters was, okay, dang, don't compare yourself to other people because they've been here and done this before. You know, just, you're trying to find your own way.
Alex:At the, at the end of the day too, an employers never gonna ask you to see your transcript.
Alejandro:Exactly.
Kandyce:The stories of people that have went to school for something else and then took a graduate program or degree in the environmental field really excite me. It's honestly the passion. So like for you, Alejandro, I'm sure you were so passionate about nature and you wanted it so bad that you made it work and you soaked in all of the knowledge and because you were soaking in all of that brand new knowledge, it kind of reflected in the. the grades as well, but I'm sure you got way more out of it than the people that were more experienced and kind of had that base knowledge already.
Alejandro:Yeah, I feel like I definitely did get a lot out of it. And you know, one of the things you have to realize is you're not gonna remember everything you learned. But I think the things I remember best or the things I gained the most from were, the network networking and understanding, the conservation landscape and the players in it creating these long lasting relationships with with my classmates at the time. And I also think you can't underestimate the value of electives. During my year there we had to choose from, I don't know, 10, 15 electives. And the ones I selected were one on, indigenous peoples in conservation and another on rewilding. The one about indigenous peoples in conservation. I think it had a long lasting impact. I mean, because that's when I started to learn that in North America and a lot of the colonized world what we consider now, the most beautiful national parks are actually areas from which indigenous people were basically evicted and kicked out. Because European descendants wanted to create areas that were, they were conservation areas, but only for specific species that could be hunted. So that was really like eye-opening on one hand. And then in the rewilding course that was very interesting because it was understanding the different visions of rewilding, right? In Europe, you know there are ecosystems that have been super degraded over time and you don't have a lot of the large megafauna that still persists in North America, right? So people here, they want to somehow either reintroduce species from other areas, even if they aren't like the exact native ones that existed in order to let nature return to a previous state, right? And that's how, you know, some of the ecosystems were actually allowed to recover. So yeah, I'd say I got a lot from that program and it's stuff that kind of inspired my work today. So this indigenous peoples course, it gave me this greater awareness and helped me a lot when I stepped into my first environmental position at Ottawa Riverkeeper, which is this local NGO o in the Ottawa, GAO area. And, a big part of our work apart from just raising awareness about protecting the Otta River watershed and the endangered species within it, such as, the American eel or the Sturgeon. It was also speaking with the local indigenous populations and stuff like that. Which were also displaced peoples and people who have suffered from colonialism and, I think it's very hard to talk about environmental issues in Canada, the United States, without thinking about the indigenous peoples as well.
Alex:Are those two areas something that you really try to promote in your own journalism work right now then it's incorporating indigenous knowledge and rewilding projects or maybe how those go hand in hand together?
Alejandro:So the first answer would be no. Because I don't selectively choose exactly, what to promote based on that kind of stuff just because I have an interest in it when it comes to my own work which is basically a marketing professional who tries to elevate the work of other journalists, I have to think of a few key questions such as what's timely, what's relevant? Also, what interests people a lot, and I think when you're talking about marketing and like communications for conservation one of the most important things is striking of balance between positive news and negative news, right? Because negative news is endless in conservation. You know, negative news is everywhere. I'm sure both of you have, you know, read a lot of headlines every day that say, oh shoot, if we don't do this by 2030, then you know, the world is doomed. Okay. There's, there's a lot of those cases. But what we're starting to see is a lot of this climate pessimism or, environmental pessimism is leading to, people being less engaged because, people are kind of getting tired of, just these negative stories. So while these negative stories are important, because like it or not, they're facts, you have to balance them with, solutions based coverage or positive stories. So I'd say that's one of the trickiest things for me to manage in my day-to-day. Like, I'll give you an example. One of my biggest tasks is running like a couple of newsletters. One's like our general Manga Bay newsletter. The other one is Reforestation Newsletter and et cetera. I have to be very, you know, careful about what articles I select to put in there because I know that. Depending on, what the title is, whether it's super negative or, super positive. Our engagement rates will vary dramatically. Right. And also to hook people sometimes the niche topic, even though it's super important, let's say, in general people don't care amphibians and reptiles as much as they do mammals, right? So I have to think of creative ways of how do I get the information about these amphibians and reptiles that is just as important as others? Because, some of these groups are the most endangered, but because they're not charismatic, we don't see it that way. But how do I get this information in front of people without them not opening this. So a lot of times, let's say a creative solution of v uk I'll make the subject about something that's not as niche. Let's say, oh shoot, you know, endangered line population found to be thriving. That's an example. That's not an actual real one. And then within the newsletter itself, not only do I talk about these lines, but I also put in a plug for the article on, the reptiles, the amphibians and everything. You have to be careful with how you market things or else, people won't actually read the information that is, is needed. Right. The most important stuff. Yeah,
Kandyce:that is very true. Cuz the majority of the population are looking through the cute, fluffy, adorable faces. Right, exactly. Mm-hmm. That's where photography comes in and all of these other things.
Alejandro:I think, I think the, the visual aspect is something that can be understated as well. I've seen in the data, both in this job in my previous one, that the picture that you choose to share on social media in a newsletter, any sort of communications is huge. Right? And unfortunately it directly impacts how many eyes are gonna be on this piece of environmental news or this piece of information with which you're trying to raise awareness. So you know, at my last job, like I worked with with this graphic designer, mark Bernards who's actually one of our e l d mentors this year. And, his job was. as he always like to say in meetings was to make things pretty. And the value of that cannot be understated because the more visually engaging something is, the more eyes you will get on on your goal, right? But anyhow, I think in my position, it's more than just making things pretty. A lot of my work consists of doing a lot of research into the journalism that my colleagues write. But at the same time, I also have to write a lot of things, whether it's you know, these newsletters I talk about these articles for the MAGA Bay Impact series. I'm currently starting to write like scripts for videos and different emails and stuff like that. So that's one way in which I think my literature background really paid off. if I wasn't able to write at the level I am today, I don't think I would be where I am either. In fact, I often attribute my writing ability to, to why I got into Oxford. And I think getting Oxford started everything, right? Because, you know, I didn't have the same environmental background as my colleagues, but I do think I wrote a pretty good letter of intent in which I cited a few different things. And you know, in my undergrad, they really place a huge emphasis on how to organize information, how to structure your paragraphs, everything like that. So that really played a big role. So, you know before coming into my masters, I had actually taken like a year off where I went to live in Spain and be an English teacher. But during that time I really traveled around all of the south of Spain to go see, you know, some of the most incredible landscapes, you know, mountains, estuaries, you had, everything there. And one of the places I went to was this national park and it was this just incredible mountain range that was in this area of Spain that in the summer gets to around like 45 degrees for like basically months. But in the mountains, as you guys know, they're kind of ecosystems of their own that change, depending on the altitude. And this was an area in which, you know They formally had in Iberian links, they had bears, wolves and also the bearded vulture. These four species had all become extinct. Right. And I was just soaking in all this knowledge and thinking dang. how can I make a difference? You know? And I just had like all these plans about k o in the future, I wanna like either create my own protected area or become the head of an NGO O or something like that, because I want to make sure that we can protect spe the species that, I've always loved so that was a big part if I hadn't had that experience, I wouldn't have been able to put it in that cover letter. Right. And frame it in a way in which, probably the people who read it were like, oh shoot, this is, this is actually, you know, this is actually interesting. This guy might have some merit
Kandyce:Yeah. I'm sure they could feel your passion through that letter. Yeah.
Alejandro:But yeah, side note that bearded vulture is much prettier than other vultures. So you guys check out, it's very cool.
Kandyce:Did you wanna chat about the different positions that you had?
Alejandro:Sure, yeah, we can do that. So following my masters at Oxford, I think probably a lot of people would've thought, oh, you're able to get whatever job you want now, like that. Which isn't necessarily true and it's not necessarily true for me or for other people either. Right. You know, I definitely struggled because even after Oxford, I didn't know what I wanted to do exactly. You know, when I got in, people asked me, oh, like, what do you wanna do after your mask? I was like, oh, I wanna work in the field. I kid you not, and I'm talking to you guys as both field professionals. I had no idea what working in the field meant. I thought I was like gonna be off of National Geographic photographic animals. I mean, at the same time, I picked up a camera in 2017 and that was just a year after I was like, I just wanna be in the, I don't know what the heck that means. And of course wasn't a good photographer back then either. Right? So after my master's, for a while I was obsessed with this idea of, doing a PhD to a point where it was the only thing I could think of where I was like, okay, you know, I have to do this PhD. Like, oh, I found a supervisor who wants to work with me. Okay. I wanna work on, Iberian links and bears and how they interact with humans. And after a few tries where I was like, okay, like I really wanna make this. You know I'm not really afraid to say that, I applied for the PhD twice and got rejected both times. But after a while I realized that I was in love with the topic that I wanted to do for my PhD, but I did not really care about the research very much. And I think that also showed because in my level of interest and also cuz I didn't have that background, right? And the more I started thinking about it I was like, I could go for this a third time, but would I actually want to be stuck doing all this solo work and have nobody see my research? And I was like, no, I don't think so. also my partner, was doing her PhD at the time and I think she had a big influence on me because as soon as soon as she finished her PhD, she was like, I, I can't wait to get out of academia. Right, because unfortunately you're working on this super niche topic and you know, even if you publish a paper, how many people are gonna see it and how many, how much time is gonna pass before it actually has an impact on the real world? It's funny because when I was speaking to my potential super PhD supervisor when I was exploring this idea, I was like, okay, but when can I make this documentary on like, wolves and bears and everything? And she was like, well, we have to do the research first. And I was like, no, no, but we have to make this. I wanna make photo I essay, I wanna make documentaries. And you know, that's when I really started to think, okay, this is not the right fit because I don't care about this research. So anyhow, that's this thinking that, you know, took like maybe a year or two to kind of get in my head. And after my masters, I kind of moved around quite a bit. So the first thing I found was this th this job as a project coordinator in, at the University of Toronto in the School of Geography, which was great because I had the chance to work with an academic and help her organize her projects or grants, et cetera that were environmentally related. But between that, and I think my next job, which was a traineeship at the European Commission where I moved to Italy to work there was a lot of time during which I was only writing cover letters, only preparing applications, even if I already had a job. I think it was maybe in like December of 2018? That's when I got accepted to this, to this program in Italy. And I moved there in March, 2019. And, It was a traineeship that only lasted five months. So I had a few goals because it was only five months, right? I was like, okay, I'm in Italy by month number five. I have to be able to speak Italian. And number two I have to find a job. So I kid you not, since 2018, up until I got hired at Ottawa Riverkeeper, in I think 2019, I probably sent oof, I don't know, at least a hundred, job applications, I would say.
Alex:And are you personalizing each of those or are you changing keywords and phrases?
Alejandro:Every single one is personalized I think it was also a process where when I started out, I was like, okay, I'm gonna just send the same thing to everybody But I'm like, this is lazy. Maybe instead of a shotgun approach, I have to be more of a sniper. So, it's first started with adjusting every single cover letter with research I had done on the company. Then I was like, you know what? This is not going far enough. Let's make sure that, I used the exact color scheme that they use on their website for their logo, let's add their logos. And, and when I started to do that, I started to notice a, a huge difference.
Kandyce:Yeah. That's like, I've never thought of that. That's an awesome, thought to put in using all of their colors!
Alejandro:Yeah, it was a big one. And it got to a point where, after getting so many, hundreds of rejections I started to get a lot more interviews. So, during my time in Italy apart from my own job, I was just sending applications left, right, and center. It took me about, maybe like two months after returning to Canada to get my job at OWA River Keeper. I think it was the perfect position for me because it combined my interest in multilingualism with my writing ability. I was a community outreach coordinator. A lot of my work has to do with social media talking to people, establishing partnerships and stuff like that. And it was really good cause I was able to work in both English and French since Ottawa and the region we were working in was bilingual. And that was really my first taste of getting into serious work and I started out as a huge rookie, that's for sure. Not even knowing what a real budget was or anything like that, but in the span of almost two years, I got to the point where I was taking a lot more of a serious role. And I started to do a lot of interviews with politicians. I would go represent the company in public at these events. And I was really feeling like I was getting into a good groove. And maybe this is symptomatic of the NGO O world, but I felt like I was underpaid.
Alex:I definitely think too that that's an experience felt across the board in our field, everyone especially NGOs, even government workers, everyone feels underpaid, undervalued. Mm-hmm. unfortunately, I feel like it's getting better now. Mm-hmm. but just the environment doesn't have all that financial backing still.
Alejandro:Yeah, that's for sure. I think it was also hot on the heels of Covid. So that played a big role, right? I had applied for this some the, the position I have at Monga now, some months ago, but I guess I forgot about it. And I had this offer for Manga Bay that was for significantly more and more than that, I think just the work conditions seemed to fit my lifestyle better. So, my partner, she lived in the UK at the time, and, a long distance relationship, like it or not is, is not the most ideal situation. So I was able to get this position at Manga Bay where I'm able to work from anywhere we want in the world, which is, if you ask me, fantastic. I was able to, get higher compensation. And I was just able to be more free. It's a job in which I don't have that many meetings throughout a week. You know, I don't have people checking on me as much as I've had at previous jobs. The difference is that you have a lot more freedom to do your own thing and organize your own work, but you also have to kick yourself in the butt a lot more in order to not fall behind. Right. And you have to motivate yourself a lot more because other people won't do it for you. Super autonomous. Kind of like, you're like a mini business. Yeah. So yeah, no one's gonna chase you and say, oh, shoot. Did you do this? Did you do that? I'm a person who thrives when I have a lot of independent time to work on my projects. That's what I get here at Monga Bay. So I definitely don't see that changing anytime soon and I just love what I do. So Good. Yeah, maybe a closing thought is that if you're feeling like you're underpaid, there's literally no harm in asking for more. I feel like a lot of people unfortunately, don't step up and advocate for themselves. And advocating for yourself is one of the biggest things. And no one's gonna be upset if you do that, right? Sure. You might have some comfortable situations with, whoever is managing that budget, but that's not gonna lose your job.
Kandyce:If you had to give yourself one piece of advice looking back, what would it be?
Alejandro:Good question. I would say. One piece of advice is for everyone is it's okay to not know. When people ask you, what do you wanna do next? What do you do next? It's okay to not know. You're gonna figure it out. Number two is if you're applying for jobs, make sure that you're personalized and you do your research, on the company that you're looking into. Because if not, it's gonna be very obvious in your recovery letter or in your interview. Like,, I've been on the interviewer side many times. I've, had to hire people. I've had to, tell people no. And as soon as they sit down if a person messes up the name of your company or doesn't know exactly what you do, that's obvious. So do your research because. You're already setting yourself apart. And then it's just about how do I go above and beyond to impress this employer? And oftentimes I think your passion is what can get you in the door. If you're passionate about what they do and you show that, your interest in aligned with that, it's sometimes enough to get them to consider you even more. And lastly, other advice maybe I'll give myself is that hmm, there's always room for flexibility to do different things in your career. So, you know, just because let's say you study science doesn't mean that you can't go into marketing just because you, study the arts doesn't mean you can't go into science later on. And even if it's not your main career, there are other ways to explore your interests. for instance, with me, with a p c wildlife photography yeah. I run this business because it makes me happy. I run this business because I love writing, I love wildlife photography. I love giving visibility to my photos, and I love helping people make the right decisions in this hobby. So there are ways to have these creative outlets in ways that, either it can be just simply as a hobby or you're able to monetize it. The only thing is that I would say that if you have a passion, just make sure it doesn't become a toxic business to the point where you start to hate it. Sometimes people say, if you work in what you're passionate about, you won't have to work a day in your life. But the reality is that, I have friends who are, professional photographers themselves and they say, dang, I used to, love photography a lot more when my life didn't depend on it. So make sure that you keep your hobbies for yourself, that let's say aren't necessarily always monetized or that don't give you that pressure that a job does.
Kandyce:That's awesome. I have a quick question for you. What is your favorite nature moment? I'm sure you've had lots because of your background in photography But if you had to pick one or two, what that is the coolest thing you've ever seen?
Alejandro:the cool. That is a very, very, very hard question. Maybe I'll give you two. I would say they both have to do with wildlife photography. So in wildlife photography, there are a few different ways that you can get to photograph your subject, right? One is just walking about setting up and trying to find a species, something like that. The other one is when you go into like wildlife photography hides and you wait forever for something to show up. I'd say that, it's a simple pleasure. But when I used to live in Ottawa I used to live very close to this river and there was this one great blue heron that I knew every single morning, well, almost every single morning would be there. And I can't really just point to one moment I had with it, but it was just a collection of moments over like a year and a half where I'm not gonna say I developed a relationship with this animal but it definitely became very comfortable with me to the point where, it didn't really matter what I was doing around it as long as I was being respectful. And I was able to get some of my best photographs of it in many different situations because of it. Whether I was standing in the middle of the river with my waiters or whether laying on the riverbank shooting it from different angles, like if it was in a tree or something like that. But that great Blue Heron for me was as close to a friend as you can get with an animal. it was just incredible. And then that was a moment just generate myself by being out in nature, really starting to understand landscape, learn about everything. But on the other hand, going back to this Hyde concept this past summer I went to Spain to visit my family. And also I did this wildlife photography workshop for Iberian links. And the thing about Hyde photography is that usually animals are baited the good thing is this one, the animal wasn't baited. There were just a watering hole in which, you know, summers in southern Spain are incredibly dry. So a lot of animals are gonna be tracked there. And I we were waiting in the hide for what seemed like in eternity. And all we were seeing were rabbits, you know, partridges and a bunch of different other birds, which is incredible. But, you know, it wasn't a links, which is what the workshop was ad advertised for. And then there was just an incredible moment where, you see these 30 odd birds of the watering hole. All of them disappear in a second, and everything is quiet. and then you start to hear the mag pies they just start going crazy. And they usually do that when a predator is nearby. Often you hear, you know, crows get really angry when they see a bird of prayer or something. Right? Right. And I was like, what is going on? And then all of a sudden you just see this beautiful adult female Iberian lynx walk out of the bush with two of her kits right behind her.
Kandyce:Oh my goodness.
Alejandro:I was like it really does not get like any better than this. It really doesn't. And I think that moment was super inspiring to me. When I was little like I had written like this this story comparing, you know, the Iberian links and like the Canada Links for my mother's a hometown newspaper in Spain and stuff like that. And you know, the Iberian links again, they keep popping up my life because damn, that was what I wanted to do my PhD on so being able to see this super endangered species that has only like about a thousand individuals left in the wild is just, it, it blew my mind. It was incredible.
Alex:Yeah. That's amazing.
Alejandro:We can definitely talk about a lot of other wildlife photography moments, but those are two that stood out to me.
Kandyce:That's awesome. I'd love to see some of the photos that you got, both of the heron and the links.
Alejandro:I'll definitely share some cuz I haven't put any out publicly yet from Spain this summer, so I'll have to get on that. Yes, most
Kandyce:definitely. Alex, do you have any other questions that you wanna ask?
Alex:I guess one final question. We touched on it a little bit earlier and a lot of the journalism and the impact you're trying to create, what are some examples of positive change you're hoping to create and put out in the world with your work?
Alejandro:So that's a guess a very good question. I think, one change I would like to make on a global scale is to make environmental journalism sexy for everyone again. I want to make sure that the work of my colleagues, all of these journalists that I work with is getting the attention it deserves. Because if their work is getting attention, it means that everyone, the public at large is getting better information about the state of the environment at this time. So the more creative and effective ways I can think of to share their work with everyone the better because it's gonna be better for all of us. And then kind of on a personal level, I'm a big fan of sharing. I'm a big fan of mentorship. I'm a big fan of education and stuff like that. So if, some of the content or things I do in my career can help other people, figure things out. Whether, if it's something small, as how to write a resume or how to, how to write a cover letter, or if it's something as big as, oh dang, like, damn, I was able to, you know, you know, get some inspiration to do this job in the environmental field because of you, then that's awesome. But any way that I can help my peers that are kind of going through a similar situation that I've been in I'm happy to do that. Whether it's in, the environmental field or whether it's in wildlife photography I'm often, hopping on calls with people who need help with their career and need help with wildlife photography So, I think anytime I can help people achieve their goals in these two fields I'm happy to do that. And that's really kind of like why ABC Wildlife Photography was started. That's, why I put some of the things I put out on LinkedIn because I want people to understand like, Hey, you know, you can do really cool things. And maybe side note I would say is that unfortunately marketing is everywhere. So, you can be doing some really cool things, but if you don't tell anybody about it, they won't know. Right. So I think as professionals in this field, if you can start to build some sort of Presence on LinkedIn, it's gonna benefit you a lot. So that's something to keep in mind.
Kandyce:That's awesome advice. I have one more question. Is there anything that you'd like to say about your time on the board for emerging leaders for biodiversity or about your role that you play on the board? the value in it, I guess.
Alejandro:I think working with emerging leaders for biodiversity is what keeps me grounded in my life. Because as opposed to the other parts of my career that we've talked about during this podcast I don't receive any monetary compensation from it. Similar to all of you. This is a purely volunteer position and in a world in which so many things are motivated by financial decisions. Or personal financial gain. Emerging Leaders for biodiversity is something where that I'm just doing, because I love the environment. I want to help other young people that have been in positions such as mine, and I want to work with an all-star cast, like the two people on this call. So I think, giving back, volunteering, it really keeps you grounded because you're only doing it for others and somewhat for yourself, but not in a way where it's tied to money So, when I was thinking about returning this year to emerging leaders for biodiversity you know, at some point I had this thought where I was like, Hmm, but I don't wanna make any money from that. But I was like, but that's, that's okay. That doesn't matter because money is not the bl and end all. What is important, I think if you ask me this along with my worship Monga Bay some of the most valuable stuff I've ever done in my career and I'm not even getting paid for this. It's just how the heck can I help other people? So through the mentorship program, I think we're doing excellent things because we're connecting. These, great people in their careers with these great up and comers that, are just in need of a bit of guidance. I'm very happy to, to work with you guys, to work with Meredith, to collaborate to make this program that can improve one thing in one of the mentees lives, then even better. And if both a mentee and mentor can benefit from their relationship, I'm happy to do that. And I've been able to, bring in people from previous positions in my career, such as, Katie Lobo from Ottawa Riverkeeper, mark Bernard's from OT Riverkeeper currently Latoya Alu, who's my colleague at MAGA Bay, all three of them are mentors this year. And, I know how strong professionals they are and what difference they're gonna make in the lives of of their mentees. So I see a tremendous value to working with E l b, to, attending E L B events, to participating in E L B programs because we provide a service that's not out there for young people in the environment and it's free. So it's very rewarding. Yeah,
Kandyce:I think it's really great. And just for the people that don't know, do you want to explain what the E L B Elevate mentorship program is all about?
Alejandro:Yeah, sure. I can give a pretty high level overview, but you'll be elevate Is is a mentorship program that connects, establish professionals in the environmental field with younger professionals or students who are looking to, really take their career to the next level or trying to find that guidance, the orientation. And, this is our second year running e l b Elevate since we, since we kind of reformed the program. And, in just one year, I think we've seen a really big improvement in terms of quality. Because, last year we were just figuring things out. It was also my first year on the board. But this year I've been very happy to collaborate with Meredith and the rest of the team to really take that to the next level. And I think this year we have about eight to 10 mentors. Eight to 10 mentees as well. So, you know it's been huge and I think every year. We get a lot of mentors that want to come back because they really enjoys the program so much. And sometimes we also get new mentors that want to collaborate with the new batch of mentees. So I think it's a great opportunity for you if you are, an established professional already or if you're someone who's kind of looking for a way in or a way to improve your existing career.
Kandyce:Awesome. And Alejandro has done an amazing job at setting all that up and organizing the mentorship program. And I think it's giving lots of value to both our mentors and our mentees.
Alex:Absolutely. Yeah, I did the program myself last year before joining the board and I found it tremendously helpful
Alejandro:Well, I'm glad you guys feel that way, but I definitely cannot take any of the credit. I think it just all goes to, the people I work with on this great board as well as, the mentors and mentees who have those conversations in order to, help each other improve. So I'm just happy that we're able to kind of facilitate that somewhat.
Kandyce:Awesome. Good. Well, I guess that ends our interview. Thank you so much for being a guest on our podcast. It was a pleasure having you.
Alex:Yeah, it was great speaking to you
Alejandro:yeah. Thank you so much to, both of you guys have been excellent hosts and I'm looking forward to seeing all the rest of the episodes on the podcast.
Kandyce:Thanks so much, and we'll chat soon. Thank you so much for tuning into Emerging Leaders for Biodiversity. How do I do this? An environmental queer podcast.
Alex:Be sure to follow us on social media and our website using the handle EL number four, biodiversity to get the latest news on upcoming events and other exciting opportunities.
Kandyce:We can't wait for you to tune in to our next episode