Hello! My name is Jason Moden!
I was born in Denver, CO in 1989 where I was raised for about 7 years before I moved down to Southern Colorado near Alamosa until I was about 19 years old. From there I moved with my family to the Dallas/Fort Worth area where I lived until 2018 when I moved to Stephenville, TX so I could go to college at Tarleton State University and except for a brief period in 2021 where I lived in Lufkin, TX, I have been in Stephenville ever since.
I have worked a variety of jobs throughout my lifetime as I eventually juggled going to school. I have an Associates degree in Science from Tarrant County College and a Bachelor’s in Environmental Biology from Tarleton State University. I have worked at the Fort Worth Zoo and Fort Worth Museum of Science and History. I have worked some customer service jobs such as Chick-Fil-A, Lowes (where I currently work) and I worked at a Library. My main career until just recently has been that of an animal keeper. I have volunteered at places such as the Dallas Zoo, Fort Worth Nature Center and a Big cat sanctuary. From there I have worked as a animal keeper at Seaquest Aquarium in Fort Worth, I worked at Fossil Rim Wildlife Center and I worked as a Big cat, rhino and giraffe keeper at Ellen Trout Zoo. Currently I just got a position as a High School Science teacher where I will be starting my teaching career!
Some of my hobbies include, of course, being out in nature, taking hikes and such. But I also love being inside playing video games and writing (when I have the time!) Along with hanging out with friends and going to Comic Cons, the zoo, museums, and other places.
I’ve loved nature ever since I was a toddler, I would look for animals in my backyard and my favorite place to go was the zoo. Ever since then my love of nature and animals has only grown. So, when I first heard about the Texas Master Naturalist program from my supervisor when I worked at Fossil Rim, I got very curious about the program and wanted to learn more. Unfortunately, the pandemic stifled my plans in wanting to join a master naturalist group. But when I moved back to Stephenville, I researched my local Master Naturalist group and that’s when I found out about Nature Fest through Facebook. I went to Nature Fest and met several members there and got to see what being in the Master Naturalist group was like. I liked talking with the people I met there and being apart of the group sounded like a lot of fun so I decided to sign up for the classes and I’m glad I did!
I have had a lot of great takeaways from being apart of the Master Naturalist group. Some of my favorite experiences with the group have been the field experiences with the class such as Feather fest at the Acton Nature Center and the field trips such as the Geology field trip where I got to find several fossils and the Woodland ecology field trip where I got to learn a lot of information about the woodlands. One day I would love to travel around the world and experience nature from many countries and environments and get to see many new animals out in their natural habitats. My ideal trip would be to go to Africa and go see all the animals over there, especially to see wild cheetahs as they are my favorite animal.
Article by Jason Moden
