Special Opportunities

Research
When you get a chance to do research with a faculty mentor, you are experiencing our program at its finest. Our faculty want to share their knowledge but also learn alongside you. There are many different research opportunities including the research experiences for undergraduates, summer campus research programs, the Centennial Scholarships Program, and the Mayo Innovation Scholars Program, a collaborative effort between the Mayo Clinic and staff and students from nine Minnesota’s private colleges and universities. A new partnership is beginning with the African Wildlife Foundation to allow Concordia students to assist with the Kilimanjaro Elephant Research and Conservation Project in the Tanzanian bush as a summer research opportunity.

Experience
You wouldn’t want to buy a car without getting a chance to drive it. The same is true for your chosen career. That’s why the biology major encourages cooperative education experiences and internships. This is your chance to do the work in your chosen field with experts in business, industry or education.  Coops and internships give you a true feel for a specific career and the health professions professors think it is so valuable it is part of the major.

Health Professions Advisement
If you want a career in health professions, you need have a great start and a complete course plan.  That’s where expert advisement and the  Health Professions Advisory Council comes in. Your adviser will make sure you take the courses that will help you the most for your chosen career. HPAC works with you and completes the committee evaluation for your professional school applications. It’s great to know you have a team of people helping you try to achieve your goals.
 
Lectures
Experts in various scientific fields will be invaluable to your education. The annual Fuglestad Lecture (link) brings expert biologists to campus to talk about a certain subject in-depth. The 2007 Fuglestad lecturers were Arlyne Johnson and Michael Hedemark, wildlife conservationists who are working on animal preservation in Laos.  In addition the department’s chapter of Beta Beta Beta, the biology national honor society, sponsors lectures.

Travel
As a biology major, you can to see life all across the globe through our May Seminars. Seminars have traveled to Tanzania and the Galapagos Islands. You can experience people, plants and animals that have different needs based on their geographic location.

Outreach
Biology students have been teaching elementary students about science through the Science Academy for the past few years. Assisting with experiments and introducing them to certain animal and plant life is a way to pique young people’s interest in science and keep your own information fresh. Another new venture will be working with middle school students at the BioHaus, an environmental building at Concordia Language Villages near Bemidji.


Information For:

current students
faculty and staff		 parents
alumni		 high school students
admitted students