FARMINGTON, Maine — One University of Maine at Farmington senior didn't let the COVID-19 pandemic slow down his career goals.
Thomas Wing of New Sharon was an Earth and Environmental Science major and avid outdoorsman, and early into his education, realized he wanted to become a fisheries biologist.
When COVID-19 shutdown the UMF campus, Wing became very worried about a lack of possible jobs and internship possibilities.
"Knowing that we couldn't do lab work and then thinking about going out in the field to do a different job, it was like, how is this going to work? If we can't even get in the lab where it's an enclosed environment, how are we going to get out into the field? So it was a scary time to be looking for a job," Wing told NEWS CENTER Maine.
But through an eagerness to learn and one of his UMF professors, Wing began Volunteering at Maine's Department of Marine Resources.
Wing is now a contracted worker for the Department of Marine Resources, stocking rivers with herring and attributes his new career to his volunteer work and willingness to take a chance to get his foot in the door.