Redefine the Starting Line.

Welcome to Foundations for Aspiring New Generations!

Designed for emerging professionals, interns, volunteers, and career-changers, empowering everyone with the resources to thrive. We help demystify career development, connecting you with the tools, community, and leadership pathways to define and achieve a conservation career — on your own terms.

This course is your space to:

Develop the strategies you need—no matter how nontraditional your journey may be.



Ground and Grow

Backed by Research, Rooted in Reality

Navigate career development, connect with the tools, community, and leadership pathways that help you define — and achieve — a conservation career on your own terms.

 Understand your own behavioral style  
 Explore your current role and how you show up in it
 Prepare for unexpected career opportunities
 Build confidence in who you are and where you’re going
 Connect your lived experiences to your professional journey
Informed by Black Intersectional Conservation Theory (BICT), redefining equity by centering the autonomy and leadership of Black conservation professionals, making career growth and representation mutually inclusive. This course offers practical tools and strategies rooted in pedagogy and lived experience, bringing BICT’s four core tenets into action:

  Visibility – Being seen as a structural priority with clear, identity-specific pathways.

  Validity – Recognizing culturally-specific knowledge systems as essential to conservation’s legitimacy.

  Voice & Belonging – Co-creators in strategy and culture within safe, trusted environments.

  Visionary Practice – Building alternative structures that center cultural histories, epistemologies, and community stewardship.

Course Lessons

About the Course Curator

Christopher Conner

Educator and Scientist 
Christopher Conner is an award-winning educator and conservationist with a diverse background in formal and informal education, as well as science and research. His expertise lies at the intersection of science, community, and education. He has over 10 years of experience working in zoos and aquariums across the country with emerging professionals, students, and volunteers, and he is passionate about community engagement, conservation education, and cultural representation. Christopher designed this course to give those in the conservation field free access to guidance, support, and community as they navigate the early and formative stages of their careers. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in Sociolinguistics and Animal Science from an HBCU, a graduate degree in Biological Sciences with an emphasis in culturally relevant pedagogy, and is the originator of Black Intersectional Conservation Theory.