Anthrozoology Graduate Finds Her Calling as a Naturalist at Wormsloe
By Loraine O’Connell
Brin Carson looks forward to going to work every day. Four days a week, the 2024 Beacon College graduate drives 12 miles from her Savannah, Ga., home to the Wormsloe State Historic Site in Isle of Hope, Ga., where she works as a naturalist. In addition to doing historical reenactments dressed in colonial clothing, Carson demonstrates blacksmithing and carpentry — skills she acquired while earning an associate’s degree in historic preservation at a Georgia college. She also gets to indulge her love of nature, monitoring the biodiversity of Wormsloe’s flora and fauna.
“It’s a protection plan for native plants and animals,” says Carson, 31. “We have two we’re really focusing on right now” — gopher tortoises and birds known as painted buntings.
Her job combines her love of history with her love of animals, and she credits her years at Beacon College with helping her find her professional direction. Besides the technical knowledge she acquired with her bachelor’s degree in anthrozoology, Carson says, the most important skill she learned was perseverance.
As a neurodivergent student diagnosed with ADHD, anxiety and depression, Carson struggled with some aspects of college. “The work ethics standards,” she says. “That was a hurdle I had to get through, being reliable as far as showing up.”
At Beacon she learned the importance of showing up, even when you don’t feel like it. “Just keep fighting the good fight,” she says. “You can’t quit.”
She particularly appreciated “how well the faculty worked together and tailor-made pretty much everything to the student,” Carson says. “I absolutely loved that when you were a first-
year student you were mandated to see an academic adviser. It wasn’t just so you could figure out what courses to take next semester but also to build rapport and a relationship with them.”
One of her advisers was Rick Bugg. “There were times when she was afraid to go do things,” he says. “She has a lot of talent. It was the confidence I needed to build up in her.”
What Carson calls her “insatiable passion for horses” led to a breakthrough for her self-confidence, Bugg says. Carson started teaching safety classes for the equestrian club, he says. “She became a leader.”
“When she became an officer in the equestrian club and had to take charge of things, that’s when she really came out of her shell,” Bugg says.
Beacon instructors take an interest in each student, Carson says. For example, she fondly recalls Bryan Cushing’s “compassion and the fact that he would, in a heartbeat, not only go the extra mile for you but the extra 20 miles if you asked him.”
At one point, Carson’s missed classes ended in academic probation. Cushing enticed her to return to his class by telling her the truth.
“I said, ‘I need you here to add to the class,’” he says. “She always elevated class discussions,” says Cushing, who taught the Animals in the Public Eye class. Carson was inquisitive and a strong example of critical thinking.
Today Carson’s love of horses finds expression in her devotion to training her horse Liberty. “She’s what we call green,” Carson says. “She just doesn’t have enough training to go on a nice, long ride. She’s still learning.”
So, Carson works four times a week with Liberty, coaxing and teaching her it’s OK to be tied to a trailer or fence “without freaking out.”
Teaching and learning are big deals for Carson. They’re also key to her job as a naturalist at Wormsloe. She loves the fact that “I get to geek out with anybody who walks through the door and will listen. I love history and am head over heels for the natural world.”
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