When Anna McGlashen first attended the University of Michigan Biological Station, she thought she wanted to be a molecular biologist. “It was coming to the Biological Station that made me realize what I really wanted to be doing was making policy,” says McGlashen (B.S. ’18). “It changed the trajectory of my life, and I think there are many people who can say the same thing.”

That’s the kind of impact the Biological Station has had on U-M students for decades. Now more than 100 years old, the Biological Station is a 10,000-acre property in the northern Lower Peninsula of Michigan whose core mission is to advance environmental field research, engage students in scientific discovery, and provide information needed to understand and sustain ecosystems from local to global scales. 

In this video, learn more about the expansive impact of the Biological Station. “We bring students here and we embed them in the environment,” says Aimée Classen, director of the Biological Station and professor of ecology and evolutionary biology. The Biological Station, she says, “encourages students to learn from the place rather than about the place.”