About Wildlife: Writing tips

The Division of Wildlife at UC Santa Cruz is dedicated to conservation, research, and protection of wild species.

WRITING TIP BLOCK ONLY. DELETE THIS BLOCK BEFORE PUBLISHING. Put a very short statement here telling visitors the essential mission of your division, department, or program. Don’t bog it down with academic or flowery language; just say briefly and clearly what this program does. Try to use words that visitors might search for in Google when searching for divisions or programs like this one; that will help with search engine optimization and hopefully bring your page up higher in search results. In this case, you could imagine people interested in the topic of wildlife conservation to type in something like, “UC wildlife conservation programs,” for example—and most of those words are in this blurb.

WRITING TIP BLOCK ONLY. DELETE THIS BLOCK BEFORE PUBLISHING. Here’s where you can really brag about what you do and make visitors want to know more—and maybe apply to/attend your program! Again, these paragraphs should be fairly short and simple. You don’t need to list everything you do, write poetry, or get super technical. Try to imagine what your intended audience would like to know, and give it to them. In this case, we’re focusing on graduate students looking for a high-quality program, and prospective faculty members who might want to teach at UCSC. Graduate students would like to know about the quality of faculty; if their desired research area is available; and what careers they can go into. Prospective faculty might be looking to know if this is a respected department that would further their career; if the program attracts high-level graduate students; and if they can continue their research here.

Become an expert in the field

UC Santa Cruz Wildlife Division programs immerse students in hands-on conservation work, advanced field studies, and innovative research projects. You’ll collaborate with leading faculty on critical issues like habitat preservation, species recovery, and ecosystem management. Our students explore diverse ecosystems, from coastal wetlands to mountain forests, gaining practical skills and scientific expertise.

Graduates of our program are well-prepared for careers in wildlife biology, conservation policy, environmental consulting, and academia. Wildlife scientists must understand and communicate about the complex ecological interactions and the cultural, sociological, and economic problems that are related to the preservation of wildlife and human land-use practices. Join us to make a tangible impact on wildlife conservation and sustainability.

WRITING TIP BLOCK ONLY. DELETE THIS BLOCK BEFORE PUBLISHING. Here’s a great place to put some impressive factoids about your department or program. Look for facts and info that might appeal to your target audience. What would sway or interest them? In this case, our numbers and factoids show that this is a big, very established program that attracts outstanding faculty and produces exceptional results. Choose information your target audience would like to see—it certainly doesn’t have to be as impressive as this fictional division’s! Ha. Just think of telling more of the story about your program through figures and data.

Wildlife by the numbers

Wildlife is the only fictional academic division on the UC Santa Cruz campus
- Eight academic departments
- One professional school: The Sammy Slug School of Natural Resources
- 3 Nobel laureates on faculty
- Eight Ph.D. programs
- 25 master’s degree programs
Largest enrollment on the UC Santa Cruz campus
- Awards 45% of total master’s degrees
- Awards 22% of total Ph.D. degrees
5,885 graduate students
166 full-time faculty
100 full-time staff
86 percent of graduates work in a position related to wildlife
UC Santa Cruz Wildlife Division ranks #1 in U.S. News and World Report‘s 2024 list of public universities with foxes, coyotes, eagles, turkeys, and banana slugs on the faculty