Rachel Ann C. Agacoscos is currently a 4th year BS Biology student majoring in Animal Biology at Polytechnic University of the Philippines. During the selection of her major, she took great consideration of her love for having interactions with animals as well as her eagerness to do fieldworks.
Aside from her love for animals, her love for arts remains unwavering. Hence, she aspires to incorporate both of her aforementioned interests on her future endeavors in the field of biological science by aiming to focus on making scientific illustrations.
Despite being on the last year of her undergraduate studies, she still has this unsatisfied desire to gain more fieldwork experiences due to her 2 years in college being conducted only through online classes. This served as a deciding factor on why she seized the given opportunity to do her 250 hour-internship in UPLB Museum of Natural History (UPLB-MNH).
On the duration of Rachel’s internship, she was exposed to various departments which includes both the zoological and wildlife collection, and the entomological collection. She experienced a wide range of tasks that significantly helped her in acquiring new skills not just for her thesis but to also her future career, including the handling and reorganizing of both dry and wet specimens, preliminary identification of bat and butterfly species, encoding and managing databases, digital imaging and 3D model making of specimens, proper storing of insect specimens, dissection of butterflies, and also fieldwork activities such as herping, birdwatching, and bat mist netting.
For her, there is pleasure in learning because the people she works with are very welcoming and has an unconditional commitment in sharing their knowledge to the interns they supervise. “My love for animals specifically for insects grew more as I learn more about them during my time here in UPLB-MNH. Learning and working alongside esteemed professionals like Sir Orly and Sir Christian made me contemplate on a future in the field of entomology. Their guidance as our supervisors along with the staff of MNH, I was given a chance to engage in activities where I can apply and further my existing scientific knowledge” she stated.
Even though still uncertain, she is actively considering the pursuit of a fulfilling career in wildlife biology.