Page 28 - 20-21 Annual Report

FEATURE

Planting the Seed

As she sat in the passenger seat, driving home to St. Louis
from Iowa with a DJM Ecological Services crew, Mary Hruz ‘20
couldn’t help but think, “Wow, did I just do that?” She had
just completed a data collection project for DJM’s client,
the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, on a forest in Iowa that
suffered major flooding the past couple of years. The data
Mary helped collect would contribute to determining the
Army Corps’ strategy for habitat restoration in this area.

The answer was, “Yes.” Yes, you did just do that, Mary.

In her early years as a student at Cor Jesu, Keeping animals in mind, Mary chose to
Mary knew she was interested in plants, spend her first exp3 day at Royal Canin,
animals and working outdoors, but she thinking that veterinary work might be
wasn’t sure how that translated to a job her calling. The only problem with that
in the real world. To attempt to figure was it didn’t give her the ecological
it out, Mary participated in Cor Jesu’s experience she was looking to obtain in
annual exp3 day – a program where her future career. So, the next year, her
students spend a full day immersed junior year, she participated in exp3 again,
in a career experience of their choice, this time visiting DJM Ecological Services.
interacting with professionals on-site DJM is a St. Louis-based company that
and participating in hands-on activities. provides comprehensive ecological
restoration and management of native
plant communities. It offers a variety
Mary Hruz completing field work during of services, including: ecological
her summer 2021 internship with DJM.
consulting services; ecological
contracting services, which ensure
full leverage of a site’s ecology to
produce an attractive, functional and
compliant landscape solution; and
native plant specialist services, which
provide site specific, custom native
seed mixes for each unique project.
After spending a day with CJA alumna
and project ecologist at DJM, Becky
Matye McMahon ‘94, Mary was hooked.
“My exp3 day with DJM was
amazing,” Mary said. “We
visited all kinds of different
project sites in St. Louis
and got hands-on experience with
ecological services that I loved. I knew
I never wanted to go to the same place
for work every single day, so the moving
around aspect really appealed to me.”

26 | FY 2020-21 DATES: JULY 1, 2020-JUNE 30, 2021