Conservation Research Assistant Program in Romania

I wouldn't ascribe this story to one student, but rather several that have had similar experiences from coming out to be a part of an Opwall field project.

Essentially, the students come with few expectations or clear ideas about how working on a remote field biology project might influence their lives and interests, but low and behold, it leads to an incredible expansion of personal perspective on themselves, sense of home, and understanding of their place in the world.

In more ways than one, Opwall is really a one-of-a-kind organization. From a structural level, I do not know of any other company that is approaching one topic, in our case biodiversity conservation, from at least four distinct platforms at once: primary research, education, community engagement, and conservation management.

Moreover, the sheer scope of countries, environments, and taxa involved is staggering, and is nearly matched by the worldwide network of participating academics, biologists, educators, and nature enthusiasts.

In my view, there is no one-size fits all answer for what makes a company successful.

That being said, having company values that emphasize the importance of clients and employees, maintaining a vibrant and constructive organizational culture, team work, a clear strategic vision and goals to achieve it, and generally being appreciate of all the hard work being in from everyone even tangentially involved with operations all seem like important factors to me.