When Mike O'Brien marches in commencement ceremonies at the University of Montana this weekend, no one will be more surprised by his academic achievement than Mike O'Brien.
It's been a long, sometimes painful road filled with many false starts, said the 27-year-old wildlife biology major from Poplar.
“I didn't do this by myself, it is a credit to the people - faculty, staff, other students I've been around at the university,” O'Brien said. “UM gave me the opportunity to go to school when I didn't really deserve it - and I almost didn't get in.”
In the meditative stillness of a basement laboratory in the bio-research building, O'Brien shared his story as he tested coyote samples that are part of a major research project on marmots in Olympia National Park.
O'Brien tried to take the fast track to college by enrolling at Montana State University the fall after high school graduation. But far from family, his tribal community and home on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation, O'Brien said he struggled in the classroom and dropped out.
He tried college again, this time at Salish Kootenai College in Pablo, but he didn't know what he wanted to study and got bored taking random classes. Then he landed a yearlong stint with the AmeriCorps program, working with young students and computers at Dixon School.
Again, though, after finishing the year in Dixon, O'Brien found himself without a plan.
That's when he headed back to Poplar to help out on his grandfather's ranch and reconnect with the life he knew best - cruising with his buddies and getting chased by the law.
A self-described “wild child,” O'Brien said he's long struggled with a strong internal drive that led to a lot of drama and bad decision-making.
“I'm not one to be led. I do my own thing,” he said. “I will do what I want regardless of the consequences, which could be a good thing or a bad thing.”
Yet while stirring up trouble at home, in his heart, he hoped for a better life.
“At 23, in Poplar, I knew the life I returned to and the life I was leading was going down a bad road,” he said. “My friends were in jail or dead, and I knew that was where I was headed if I didn't change things.”
It was something he talked about with his grandfather in and around the ranch work.
The more he thought about it, the more he wanted to give college one more chance - and decided to place his hope in UM.
After he filled out his application, O'Brien came to campus to talk with Patrick Weasel Head, director of UM's American Indian Student Services.
It was a conversation Weasel Head hasn't forgotten.
“We sat in my office and talked for a good hour, and one of the things he talked about was certain parts of his family were going astray,” Weasel Head said. “He was at the point that he could choose that path or go to school and focus on another way of life.
“We talked about the importance of longtime leadership roles and that anything is possible, but you have to focus.”
It was clear to Weasel Head back then that O'Brien had the intellectual gifts and the necessary self-awareness to succeed academically.
O'Brien said the conversation was the start of his new life. It was then he saw the lifeline that could pull him forward and out of his world of turbulence.
He laughs recalling his first semesters at UM. He began the same way he did at every other college he attended - by taking classes he thought would be good for him, rather than classes he enjoyed or felt excited about.
“I showed up to UM in spring 2004 and thought I would be a physical therapist - wildlife biology was the farthest thing from my mind,” O'Brien said.
But campus administrators were keeping a close eye on O'Brien, who pulled down a 3.7 GPA his first semester, and encouraged him to apply for a research scholarship called TRAIN, which stands for Training American Indians in Environmental Biology. The suggestion - and the subject matter - was a reach, but one O'Brien was willing to make.
“That's what shifted my life,” he said. “Wildlife biology just fit. I grew up in Montana, I'm an outdoors kid, and I spend a lot of time outside.”
Soon, O'Brien found himself back outside studying the large and small creatures that make Montana their home as well - the bison of Yellowstone National Park, elk and coyote - and began unraveling their mysteries in the welcome quiet of campus laboratories.
Along the way, he had a life-altering epiphany: “If I became a wildlife biologist, I could do what I love. I could study my passion and make it my career.”
Come fall, O'Brien will begin the road to a master's degree in wildlife biology.
“My intention is to help use what I have learned here to help promote conservation on reservations around the United States, especially for the ones I'm from and that are in Montana,” O'Brien said.
The reservations, he said, could use some help improving wildlife habitat and increasing wildlife diversity.
The good news, he said, is that reservations often are large rural areas with sparse human population, so are well-suited for conservation efforts. The bad news, he said, is that there are no hunting regulations for tribal members who live there.
“If something's out there, they can shoot it - it's their tribal right,” O'Brien said. “And there's not an understanding about the importance of diversity and the benefits you can reap from managing wildlife for a lot of populations, like elk.”
O'Brien said he's grateful for the opportunity that has allowed him to find his path in the world.
Conservation, in many ways, is a healing science, one that helps restore balance to the world, he said. And the study of it has restored him in many ways.
He's learned to love the peace that comes with the bench science of his field. In the solitude of the laboratory, he has the luxury to sort through the internal and external questions of his life.
“I think about the whole issue of karma,” he said. “I have a lot to pay back at home.”
What that work entails is private, but it will unfold as O'Brien takes his next steps forward.
“I'll take graduate school and go from there,” he said.
“I find it amazing - it's kind of weird to hear me say that. At one time, I thought I'd be in jail - that was my prospect - but now I'm going to grad school.
“I've still got a lot of work to do.”
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