For most freshmen, looking at high school feels like looking into a jungle. But for Calder Burton, the jungle lies within his own bedroom.
The bio-genius and freshmen class president is not only the voice of hundreds of students, but hundreds of animals and plants as well.
“Last time I counted I had 37 pets. Most of them are exotics but I have cats and dogs too,” Burton said. “I probably have 100 fish. Then 12 or so larger terrestrial animals as well as a few invertebrates.”
There are two sides to his story though; the fact that he has an abundance of plants and animals is one thing, but how he actually got to that point is another.
“When I was little, [my grandpa] would force me to go into the woods with him because he was a high school biology teacher,” Burton said. “He would force me to learn about everything, and I kind of started to like it. I just haven’t stopped.”
Through his grandparents, Calder was able to start partnering and working with Calvin College. Simple volunteer opportunities expanded into actually working at their bunker interpretive center where he has a relationship with the director. At home and at the center he grows plants to be sold through Calvin.
His grandparents, as well as a select handful of scientists, inspire Burton.
“E. O. Wilson was the first person to modernize entomology (the study of insects) outside of Victorian ages. Then Frans de Waal, the first primatologist (scientist of the study of primates),” Burton said of his idols. “Alexander Von Humboldt was in the 1800’s and he did a majority of the classification of South American animals and plants, he was one of the first naturalists to go to South America.”
By the time Burton entered his freshmen year, unlike most of his class, who were lost in the jungle of high school, he already has his life figured out.
He has managed to maintain his personal studies, discover his interests, volunteer, join citizen science groups and make connections with individuals of higher education, all in preparation to become either a pollination ecologist or a botanist.
In the long process, he also came across the discovery of his true personality, that of a Cope’s Grey Tree Frog.
“I relate to the grey tree frog because he’s something special,” Burton said. “He breaks out of his cage and then breaks stuff all the time.”
