Undergraduates in Natural History Collections: Educational Opportunities and Needs

The University of California, Santa Barbara’s Cheadle Center for Biodiversity and Ecological Restoration is distinctive in its dual mission of ecological restoration and natural history collection curation. The Center offers an experiential undergraduate course called Introduction to Curation of Natural History Collections, which provides hands-on learning activities in the Cheadle Center’s invertebrate, vertebrate, and vascular plant collections. Each quarter, the class alternates between professors and collections, and students can take it multiple times, allowing them to gain experience in different collections from professors with different backgrounds. Undergraduate students are fundamental to supporting the Cheadle Center’s mission of restoration and conservation through the curation class as well as successive opportunities. After completing the course, students can apply for competitive curatorial internships that provide experience in menteeship. This opportunity teaches students how to acquire internships and develop professional interpersonal and technical skills, offering a valuable introduction to the professional world of Natural History Collections curation. The collection curation course is a unique opportunity for students to determine whether they are well suited to the field. This benefits the Cheadle Center because it invests in students that are already committed to and passionate about curation work. Missing from this curatorial experience, though, is taxonomic training. While inessential, and allowing for more students to get involved in the work, this is a disadvantage for those who intend to enter the Natural History Collections field. Taxonomic training is a barrier to entry and makes a major difference in hiring for career positions. However, taxonomy is no longer taught at the University and inaccessible to non-Biology students. Online taxonomy workshops typically have limited space and prioritize professional seniority, but reserving some space for early career students would aid their professional preparedness. The Cheadle Center is considering developing taxon training or supporting student participation in existing programs.Presented at SPNHC 2025