Life and Work with Sean Laughlin

Today we’d like to introduce you to Sean Laughlin.

Sean, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
My family moved from Texas to Longmont, Colorado in 2002, where I attended Shepherd Valley Waldorf School, then we moved into Denver when I was in 6th grade to attend and then graduate from Denver Academy in 2012. I was accepted to Eckerd College in St Petersburg, Florida. Eckerd’s tropical location served me well as I focused on environmental studies and field research on snakes, turtles, and crocodiles. After graduating, I received my dive master certification in Cozumel, Mexico then joined the herpetology team and lived at the Sakaerat Biological Preserve in Thailand radio tracking king cobras for a spatial ecology analysis. After seven months in Thailand, I took the opportunity to explore Cambodia, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Singapore then took a herpetologist position in Madagascar educating student groups and studying the reptile and amphibian biodiversity.

I speak Spanish, am an avid photographer, love hiking, rock climbing, free diving, working with wildlife, scuba diving and exploring the world. Although I am 25, I have traveled to six continents and 26 countries. I taught environmental education for a season in Austin, TX and then did raptor training and education in Birmingham, AL. Last summer I led a National Geographic Student Expedition to Bail, Indonesia where I taught wildlife conservation and marine science to the students. For the 2018-19 school year, I lived in Dubai, U.A.E. as a field studies instructor teaching outdoor survival skills, backpacking trips and wildlife conservation in the middle eastern desert. During the 2019 summer, I will be the lead herpetologist for a company studying the amazing reptiles and amphibians found in the Guyana Amazon basin before I begin a new adventure in August with Earthy Academy in Maui, HI.

Has it been a smooth road?
There are always struggles that people face however, mine was not the more typical ones. What sets me apart from others is when I was younger, I struggled with severe learning differences and was told from certain institutions that I would be lucky to graduate high school. Thankfully I was able to attend an amazing school in Denver, Co which allowed me to develop skills to deal with these learning differences. While traveling and doing my jobs there are a lot of stresses and because so much of the work I do is seasonal, there were many times in between contracts when I thought I wouldn’t get hired. I did a lot of unpaid volunteer work abroad at first to build up my resume and gradually worked my way up to better jobs in the conservation world. I encourage anyone graduating to take international opportunities and just work for room and board at first.

Please tell us more about your work, what you are currently focused on and most proud of.
I have many different titles like naturalist, herpetologist, field scientist, environmental educator, outdoor educator, and conservationist. I do contract work all around the world doing different jobs that all revolve around the same end goal, which is conservation education to ensure that students learn how important it is to preserve the amazing wildlife and ecosystems we have on this planet. I specialize in the study of reptiles and amphibians, which is called herpetology. Most of the projects I have worked on a deal with snakes, which are my passion. They are such fascinating animals and feared by many. Snakes are crucial to keeping the ecosystems they reside in healthy and are much better at removing mammalian diseases and vermin from areas than any cat or human pest control. What I am most proud of is my environmental education work where I have inspired so many students to care for the environment. I love the challenge of teaching them to appreciate animals that people typically find scary or threatening.

Are there any apps, books, podcasts or other resources that you’ve benefited from using?
What a lot of my peers have been using to reach more people and educate them about the amazing flora, fauna and natural places on our planet is Instagram. My handle is @thewildgingerbeast and over the last three years, I’ve been constantly expanding on how many people I can reach with a fun and entertaining focus on conservation education. While traveling around the world, Instagram has also been a great way to meet people who are also doing amazing conversation work. In the near future, I hope to start a travel blog.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: thewildgingerbeast

Image Credit:
thewildgingerbeast

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