What We’re About

On the Biology and Environmental Studies Assistant Crew (BIO/ENS) you have the opportunity to work with the department in various ways! Depending on the section of the crew you join you can complete fieldwork, tutor your peers, build and maintain collections, set up and break down labs, maintain equipment, assist faculty, maintain the greenhouses, and so much more!

This crew is made up of a plethora of sub-crews including:

  • Greenhouse
  • Herbarium
  • Teaching Assistant
  • Conservation Biology
  • Biology Tutor

A biology and environmental studies crew student helps another student study a sample through a microscope

Herbarium Sub-Crew

On this sub-crew you will curate, care for, and add to the Warren Wilson Herbarium. A herbarium is a collection of pressed plants, and our collection holds well over 8000 specimens today, some dating back over a hundred years!  Most of our collection is from the southeast, but we do have specimens from other parts of the US and beyond.

Everyone on the crew trains in all of the tasks of an herbarium assistant: identifying plants, collecting and pressing them, creating professional specimens, databasing, filing, and more.

What You’ll Learn

You’ll spend years working alongside your peers with the mentorship of your supervisors.  Part of the experience of work at Warren Wilson is guided critical reflection, which helps ensure that you achieve both your own educational goals as well as our Common Learning Outcomes. These intentional learning outcomes distinguish our Work Program, giving it focus and relevancy that set it apart from a federal work-study or your average part-time job. 

Our Common Learning Outcomes:

  • Professionalism & Work Ethic: accountability, effective work habits, punctuality, dependability, time management, integrity, and commitment to the well-being of the community.
  • Critical Thinking and Problem Solving: working with available resources to creatively address issues and solve problems, and gaining confidence to make decisions.
  • Communication: the ability to convey and receive information effectively with intentionality, honesty, and confidence in both speech and writing.
  • Collaboration & Teamwork: actively collaborate with peers to achieve common goals, Distribute labor fairly, and hold each other accountable as committed members of a group.
  • Civic Identity: understanding your active influence within the community and how your decisions directly impact the work around you.

In addition to our Common Learning Outcomes, each crew in the Work Program identifies crew-specific goals for learning and performance. These are reviewed with you each semester. Your crew-specific learning goals outline skills and abilities your supervisor will teach you during the semester. 

Some of our Biology and Environmental Studies Assistant crew learning goals include:

  • Tutoring Skills
  • Lab Management
  • Plant Care and Identification
  • Specimen Collection, Organizing, Filing
  • Greenhouse Management

Biology and Environmental Studies Crew students water plants in the Herbarium.

The Biology and Environmental Science crew tutors students.