In my senior year of university, I responded to a call for volunteers for a NGO with very little knowledge about wildlife conservation, but quickly fell in love with it. I started working as a field intern in the Persian leopard population study in Saidvaa National Park in Iran, learning about field ecology and carnivore behavior, analyzing camera-trapping data and study design.

During my Bachelor’s program in environmental sciences and engineering in Tehran University, I realized so many of the environmental challenges that my country faces, including human-wildlife conflicts, is due to poor land management; so my next step was to do my master’s in land-use management and spatial planning to try to be a part of the solution.

Many other challenges stem from a lack of environmental education in primitive years. To remedy this, in addition to my education, I have been teaching natural sciences to children of all ages in schools and institutions for 5+ years.

Through the Recanti-Kaplan Postgraduate Diploma I aspire to learn about the latest developments in the field and to my knowledge and practical skills. I wish to connect with peers and professionals to understand conservation from the point of view of those who make things happen.