WLC Member Profiles: Esther Nosazeogie

I am Esther Nosazeogie, a writer and story-lover. I am also at a very early stage in my career as a researcher in Conservation Biology.

I have loved to write since I was at least seven years old, but I never heard about conservation until my third undergraduate year in the university. Although I grew up in a practically tree-less neighbourhood in Lagos, Nigeria, my secondary (or high) school compound had lots of trees, which I loved so much. I remember feeling particularly bereft whenever they cut down any tree in those days. 

My favourite subjects in secondary school were Biology and English but like most of my classmates (and many science students in Nigeria), I didn’t know there was any other career option open to me outside Medicine. So I applied to study Medicine with maybe 95% of my classmates. Unfortunately, or fortunately, I didn’t get into the Medicine program. Instead, I was offered admission to study ‘Animal and Environmental Biology’. My response was, “What is that?!” My sister told me it meant ‘zoology’. Everyone else wanted to know where I was going to work when I was done with my studies. I didn’t know, but it was Biology, so I accepted the admission.

It was a very interesting course, at the end of which I got interested in conservation, met a bat researcher (Iroro Tanshi), went to the field with her, and fell in love with birds. By the time I was done with the course, my decision was pretty much made: I wanted to do field research focused on birds. So I did some volunteering which opened my eyes to the true situation of things (a lack of both information on and awareness of conservation issues in Nigeria). I began to seek opportunities for starting a career in conservation, and was lucky to get into a Conservation Biology masters course at the A. P. Leventis Ornithological Research Institute in Jos, Nigeria. It was there that I learned that I could communicate science with my writing, and with other storytelling skills. A couple of years later, I learnt about the Wild Lens Collective.

I joined the Wild Lens Collective last year because I wanted to both hone my skills in writing about science, and gain more storytelling skills. So far, it’s been an amazingly supportive group and I have learnt so much in such little time! I am also currently benefitting from a science writing/journalism mentorship within the Collective, which is awesome.

So, that’s me: still in early stages of my career, and in the process of getting the hang of what it means to do ‘sound science’, and what it is to tell good, clear and interesting stories about science. 

You can find out more about what I have done so far at naturestorynigeria.com

If you would like to find out how to join the Wild Lens Collective, please click here.