"I never thought I was smart enough for science degrees," says Mariah Campos ('22).

But now, Campos has served as coordinator of Lights Out Fort Worth, an initiative that hopes to reduce the danger birds face during migration, and she is planning to earn her master's degree in wildlife.

"There's something special about being in any kind of natural science," Campos says. She notes how passionate the people are, and she enjoys the fieldwork and the down-to-earth experience ecology provides.

"It is what I feel comfortable doing for the rest of my career," Campos says about her choice.

This career path, however, has not been linear. An information technology major who dabbled in graphic design, she didn't find her niche at first.

"I decided I don't like computers all that much," Campos says. "IT kicked my butt."

A weekend trip to Rocky Mountain National Park changed her direction from screens to nature.

"I experienced my first out-of-state nature trip, and it was life-changing," Campos says. "I came back and changed my major."

She searched for programs in the natural sciences, which led her to UNT, where she graduated in 2022 with a bachelor's degree in ecology.

"I chose there and everything just kind of fell into place," Campos says.

One experience at UNT stands out to her, which involved cleaning fish tanks. While volunteering at the Aquatic Toxicology laboratory in the Environmental Science Building, Campos assisted then-doctoral student Corey Green ('23 Ph.D.) with his dissertation by feeding his zebrafish, monitoring their health, recording water quality measurements and other tasks. She also worked with the lab animals, such as fathead minnows and red drum fish, of other graduate students.

"They are still connected with me to this day," Campos says about the relationships she fostered at the lab. "That's just one experience, but I think it was the most important."

Campos also was involved in the Society for Ecological Restoration, an organization committed to ecosystem recovery. There, Campos was provided networking and volunteering opportunities and initially heard about the Texas Conservation Alliance, which heads up Lights Out Fort Worth.

This initiative, part of the larger Lights Out DFW campaign, asks people to turn off lights at night during peak migration seasons, which can be disorienting to birds and cause them to crash into buildings.

Shortly after graduating, Campos was brought on as the coordinator for the fledgling campaign and began laying its groundwork.

"Anything that has to do with Lights Out Fort Worth, I was involved," Campos says.

She attended events, planned the route for the survey teams, wrote reports, sent out mass emails, ordered survey equipment, standardized methods, hired people and trained volunteers.

While working as coordinator, Campos also worked at the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History and as a zoologist at the Dallas Zoo. Now, her career is heading in a new direction.

Future plans for Campos include earning her master's degree. She expects to attend Eastern New Mexico University for a graduate program in wildlife, where she will research an endangered species of turtle in the Pecos River. Green, the UNT doctoral student she helped who is now an assistant professor at that university, contacted her about the position and said she is a perfect fit, Campos says.

"It's kind of interesting how it comes full circle like that -- just feeding fish to being accepted into a master's program just four years later," Campos says. "So, it's a very humbling moment."

She advises current students to connect with the people they work with because they may have your back even after graduation.

"Without my time at UNT, I would definitely have never been able to experience some of the things that I have in my career so far."