Alumnus finds works at local nature center

For Jon Horry, a 2010 graduate in psychology and sociology, the River Bend Nature Center is more than an 18-acre facility with a mission to connect Texas to nature. As a tour guide, he works to works to teach guests about everything from butterflies to snakes.

He said he is responsible for teaching the guests about the different departments of the center like the Ruby N. Priddy Butterfly and Nature Conservatory, Peyton’s Place, the Bryant Edwards Learning Center, the River Bottom Forest Trail and the United Children’s Garden.

“It is a very low stress job,” Horry said. “I work with a good group of people who really get along. I am able to meet and interact with people from all over and animals as well. It is great.”

Although Horry said he likes the concept of interacting with animals, it was not his first plan.

Horry said, “I was always interested in psychology because I was interested in human behavior. At first sociology was my minor, but I became really interested in it when I took a class with Larry Williams so I decided to double major in it.”

Although Horry said he wanted to go other places in life with his degree, having a degree in psychology and sociology was useful for giving tours.

“The major prepared me to interact with the public better,” Horry said. “It especially helped me interact with people with mental disabilities/illnesses.”

The classes that did not go with his major helped him prepare for the job at the nature center as well.

“My life sciences truly prepared me for the job,” Horry said. “Botany and zoology helped me the most.”

To give tours, he had to learn about the museum, the animals and the local environment, and that didn’t happen over night.

At the nature center all kinds of animals roam inside the glass enclosure, from a road runner named Rocko who likes water baths and likes to play hide-and-seek to a grey-banded king snake that loves to kiss Horry’s nose. Then there’s the varieties of butterflies housed in Peyton’s Place.

“I am still learning about the center and animals because one never stops learning,” Horry said. “It took me about a year to get truly comfortable with giving tours and learning enough about the animals to give tours.”

Horry’s favorite part of his job is going to schools and teaching kinds about nature.

“I love when we get to leave the facility and go teach for about two hours,” Horry said. “We teach the kids all of nature. I love it especially when the kids we teach legitimately want to learn and are interested in it.”

River Bend has no venomous snakes in the entire facility.

“We have no poisonous snakes in honor of a little girl by the name of Peyton,” Horry said. “She was killed by a venomous snake. In honor of her the family donated to the facility and dedicated Peyton’s Place (a home to a variety of butterfly species) to her.”

Although, Horry is not doing anything in psychology or sociology, Horry said he may take the skills he has learned working at the center and go into teaching.

“I have considered getting my Ph.D. in a social science, but I still have not decided,” Horry said. “I want to teach because I know working in a lab is not for me. I like to teach, but I want to teach college kids. My dream job would be to work at Midwestern.”