Point of Uncertainty

Source: http://wikipedia.org

During Jeff’s high school days at Norwell High School, he was always the class clown, entertaining the people around him with his voice impersonations and jokes. Despite making people around him laugh, he always felt like he did not fit in. Luckily Jeff found the Norwell High School Drama Club and performed in musical theatre production where he could use all his creativity and energy. At the end of high school, Jeff graduated high school with bad grades.

After high school, Jeff was unsure of what to do with his life, hence he decided to join the army and eventually decided to use the money earned from the army to pay for his college education. He went to Fort Sam Houston for his professional training where he trained to become a field medic and eventually became a certified advance field medic.

Even during Jeff’s army days, his love for animals did not dwindle. There was once he visited a rattlesnake roundup in Texas, a carnival where rattlesnakes were captured and used for performances such as onsite skinning or deep frying. Jeff was enraged when he found out the method for capturing so many snakes was to spray possible snake dens with gasoline gas such that the snakes will exit the den to escape the poisonous gas but only to get caught by those people running the show.

Source: http://nationalgeographic.com

He pooled money with his army friends and bought as many snakes as possible from the snake roundup and released those snakes back into the wilderness. This further resolved his determination to save and protect animals from such cruelty.

After army, Jeff enrolled in Bridgewater State College and with strong determination, he went from bad grades in high school to achieving As in college, taking course like biology and anthropology.

Jeff’s love for the rainforest also manifested in college as he started his own nonprofit organization with funding from Bridgewater State College and the help of Dr. Jahoda. It is known as Emerald Canopy Rainforest Foundation. It aims to help preserve rain forests around the world using education of its importance to people as its humans who are destroying the rainforests and driving many species of animals to extinction. This is Jeff’s first major step in his efforts of conservation.

Source: http://unep.org

He then went on to serve at the United Nation Environmental Program’s (UNEP) youth action committee with his work on the Emerald Canopy. He also presented to the General Assembly of the United Nation during a conservation conference with the aim of saving rain forests.

Jeff graduated from college in 1992 and went to work at a field station in Belize and at this point his career choice was academics in biology.