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In September 2009, during a behind-the-scenes tour of the Smithsonian’s National Zoo in Washington, D.C., hippo keeper John “J. T.” Taylor brought out a hippo skull to show students participating in the Smithsonian-Mason Semester. During the same visit, the students had the opportunity to feed Happy, a 5,500-pound Nile hippopotamus.

In 2000, Mason and the Smithsonian Institution's National Zoo and joined forces to educate the next generation of conservation leaders. The Smithsonian-Mason School of Conservation was created.

During the Smithsonian-Mason Semester, students live at SCBI's 3,200-acre campus in Front Royal, Virginia, and learn directly from prominent conservation practitioners and Smithsonian scientists as they engage in hands-on research that’s critical to saving endangered species and preserving biodiversity.

Mason is one of the few universities to partner with the Smithsonian Institution in this way.

Photo credit: Evan Cantwell/Creative Services