Ophélie Marek is passionate about protecting nature and making people aware of the destruction that has occurred. She has lived in many countries and interacted with different cultures, learning about their perspectives on nature. Marek studied veterinary science, sociology, and natural resources. She conducted surveys about the effects of Hurricane Katrina and wild boar presence. Marek hopes to work directly with local communities to help address their problems in a way that preserves natural habitats and cultures for future generations.

1. Ophélie Marek Personal Statement
Nature is one of our most important assets, but for well over a hundred years, we have been destroying
it, taking it for granted. More, but still too few, people in this ultra-modernized world recognize this.
Even fewer acknowledge that we have both modified our environment to a point of no return and that
the few remaining areas are indispensable to us. I realize we have gone too far to restore everything
that’s been destroyed, but I am ready to invest my entire life into protecting an area and making people
all over the world more aware of the destructions. I would like the future generations to not hear the
words ‘endangered’ or ‘extinct’. I hope to make an impact, even if on a small community, to where their
future generations will see the same rivers, forests, and animals as they do now, instead of buildings and
roads.
All my life I have stayed an average of 3 years in a country, each time not only carrying my suitcase
with me, but filling a cultural suitcase with different personal experiences along the way as well. I have
been in contact with traditional healers in West Africa, visited remote Saharan villages, talked to
descendants of the Taino Indians in the Dominican Republic, bargained with Touareg men, went
shrimping in the Gulf of Mexico, ... These experiences have humbled me about my everyday wants
compared to my everyday needs. It made me realize that a simple tree can be seen very differently: from
the modern city life perspective, it allows you to read your emails under the shade with a Venti coffee in
your hand; from a villager’s point of view, the fallen tree is reason for crying because it brought
mangoes to the village all season long. I have also learned that to some, no amount of air conditioning
while browsing with the fastest internet speed on your La-Z Boy recliner can compare to the beauty of
the savanna or forest, where the ancestors went to search for the plants that cured your grandfather and
the animals that fed the village in times of famine.
My love of nature and animals made me first target veterinary studies, which explains all my hours
working alongside veterinarians in multiple countries, and entering LSU as a pre-vet student. I then
realized I really wanted to work on a broader scale and entered the sociology and natural resources
departments. I also participated in a 5-year study of the effects of hurricane Katrina on New Orleans
residents with a sociology professor at LSU. I went by myself, knocked on doors of the 9th Ward,
hoping for the best, as this area was known to be one of the most dangerous in the South. What surprised
me the most was that the people were the opposite –well, most of them were– of what everyone
portrays: after checking I was not from the bank or government, almost all of them sat with me on their
porch and answered the entire survey. To me, this particular experience was one of my most interesting,

2. because I was able to be at the heart of the problem, talking to the people who had lived the catastrophe,
seeing the “X” ’s on the houses, hearing flood stories first-hand. My last semester at LSU was spent
collecting about 500 answers from a survey sent out by the human dimensions professor. The survey
was sent to Louisiana landowners and asked them about wild boar presence on their land. I analyzed the
results, and was supposed to present the findings at a biology conference, but my student visa expired
before the conference date. I also took a class where we had to work in groups all semester long. One of
the tasks was to create our own survey, send it out, and analyze the results. My group consisted of 6
students, and under my leadership, we researched people’s view of fire due to Smokey Bear’s early anti-
fire campaigns, as we wanted to know if they saw prescribed fire the same way as non-prescribed fire.
My second year at LSU, I had my first ‘real’ job: I worked at the French Department for graduate
students and professors. There, my curiosity, outgoingness, problem-solving, and initiative-taking were
rewarded with a meritorious award after only 6 months. I’d like to point out that no student worker had
ever received that award.
What interests me is the idea of working with local communities hands-on on their actual problems. I am
seeking not only the cultural experience and exchange, but I also hope to help the current generation, in
turn helping the next one and so forth. I am passionate about preserving our natural habitats as well as
the cultures that are within it. This passion makes me fight for a better understanding of the modern
world’s consequences on forest ecosystems, and a bigger respect towards ‘less modern’ people. I am
quite strong willed, but know to recognize when I am wrong. I am a problem-solver, and when I see an
obstacle, I always find ways to overcome it. I hope to bring this passion, as well of my understanding of
different cultures, to any job. I will make sure to keep my –quite bad– sense of humor home, and come
in and leave everyday with a smile.