Smithsonian-Mason Global Conservation Education Program
In October 2008, the National Zoo and George Mason University created a new, comprehensive academic program, the Smithsonian-Mason Global Conservation Education Program. This new program incorporates multidisciplinary faculty from the Zoo’s Center for Conservation Education and Sustainability and George Mason University’s Center for Conservation Studies and will train students to help avert and treat the looming biodiversity crisis. The program will provide academic opportunities for as many as 50 undergraduate students per semester, and an additional 60 professional or graduate students.
Building upon their long partnership, the Zoo and Mason has created this program to train the next generation of conservation biologists, natural resource managers, decision-makers, and educators. Students will live and study at the Zoo’s 3,200-acre Conservation and Research Center in Front Royal, Virginia, where they will have access to world-class scientists. The CRC offers more than 2,000 acres of natural study sites and houses more than 30 endangered species.
The new facilities at CRC will begin construction in 2012. The new energy-efficient buildings will include housing and living spaces as well as research and computer labs, classrooms, and offices. In the interim, the Smithsonian-Mason Semester, a residential learning community for undergraduates, is offered annually and new professional training programs will be developed using existing CRC facilities and research sites. In 2008, 15 undergraduates each received 16 units of credit through the Smithsonian-Mason Semester. In addition, a joint fellowship program supports eight Mason graduate students in conservation biology. Applications are being accepted for the 2010 Smithsonian-Mason Semester. 
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