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First of all, I would like to thank the ESA for the opportunities offered to students and for allowing me to participate in your program. Every experience I have had with SEEDS has been a great learning experience and once in a life time opportunities. I learn a lot from the field trips and it’s nice to meet people with the same general interests and future aspirations. The staff that escorts the students is always exceptionally nice and I learn a lot with each new opportunity that I have been privileged enough to be included on. The field trips are definitely that “little push” for people who aren’t quite sure if Ecology is the field for them.

My first field trip with SEEDS took place last week and I simply had to share how wonderful this trip was.

This year�s ESA/SEEDS field trip to sunny Santa Barbara, California and the UCSB LTER was incredible! I can�t remember the last time I had sooo much fun with people I barely knew and had only just met.

DEADLINE FOR PROPOSALS: OCTOBER 31, 2007 The Governing Board of the Ecological Society of America (ESA) invites proposals for the first ESA Millennium Conference. The new Millennium Conference Series provides ESA members the opportunity to organize special conferences highlighting emerging, exciting ideas in ecology with the endorsement and support of the Society. Organizers are encouraged to work across disciplinary boundaries,…

Fifty years ago today, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the world�s first artificial satellite. As John Noble Wilford describes in the New York Times (September 25, 2007, page D2), �Climbing out of the terrestrial gravity well, rising above the atmosphere and into orbit, Sputnik crossed the threshold into a new dimension of human experience.

This is to invite you to attend an Arthur M. Sackler colloquium, In the Light of Evolution II: Biodiversity and Extinction, sponsored by the National Academy of Sciences. The Colloquium will be December 6-8, 2007, at the Beckman Center of the National Academies of Sciences and Engineering in Irvine, California. A preliminary program can be viewed at www.nasonline.or.

he SEEDS Fellowship is an opportunity for undergraduate students who are underrepresented in the field of ecology to conduct an independent ecological investigation with an ESA member mentor. The application deadline for the 2008-2009 Fellowship is September 21, so apply today! http://esa.org/seeds/fellowship/.

The Governing Board of the Ecological Society of America (ESA) invites proposals for the first ESA Millennium Conference.

Last weekend our community lost a great friend, Jon A. Stravers, Jr.While traveling from his home in Idaho to visit family in Iowa, Jon and his young son, Jonah, died in a collision with a drunk driver in northeastern Colorado.

My experience at this year’s ESA Annual meeting was unforgettable. Returning as a graduate school student and SEEDS Alumni Mentor, I not only had the chance to connect with old and new participants of the SEEDS program

To all ecologists with families:You are invited to join a mailing list/discussion group on Yahoo entitled Science and Families…

ESA’s SEEDS program is pleased to announce a fall field trip to the Santa Barbara Coastal Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) site, October 25-28, 2007. Undergraduate students with a sincere interest in promoting the SEEDS mission – to diversify and advance the field of ecology – are eligible to apply.