Logan Eastman is majoring in zoology, with hope to become an entomologist. He is seen here during production of the upcoming Amazon Prime TV episode of "The College Tour," Nov. 8, 2024While academic opportunities are what brought first-year student Logan Eastman to WNMU, the Gila is what has made him feel at home. Brought up in Tijeras, NM, east of Albuquerque, Eastman has lived his entire life close to nature. "Growing up, I was living in the Cibola National Forest," said Eastman, "so I have always lived in a location where I had these huge, beautiful trees around me that were protected. And so for me [the Gila] is another nice backyard to have."

Logan Eastman is a featured student in the upcoming Amazon Prime TV episode of "The College Tour" that was filmed on campus in November. Link to article at the end.

But the Gila is also serving as a laboratory for Eastman, a Zoology major. He described a recent field trip to Cherry Creek in the Gila National Forest with Professors Eric Casler and Bill Norris. "We drove in vans and we went into Cherry Creek for one of our assignments in one of our labs," he said. The class collected samples of leaves from different trees to study.

While all of nature interests Eastman, he has a particular passion for insects, and for ants especially. Ants, he said "are just fascinating when you really look at them. They have such beautiful intention when they work."

Eastman appreciates that his take on ants is unusual. "A lot of people are afraid of insects," he acknowledged, "They don't really understand [them], and they don't think insects can express emotion."

For him, however, ants are anything but scary. "Ants really fascinate me because of how complex they are—how they have evolved to make a cooperative societal and caste [system]," he said, "I think ants are a really underappreciated species."

Eastman learned about ant behavior in large part from watching nature documentaries, such as those hosted by one of his heroes, Sir David Attenborough, and from online videos like those produced by the organization Ants Canada. Said Eastman, "Ants Canada got me into the story of insects because [the narrator of the videos] tries to tell a story."

Eastman wants to use his zoology major to study entomology in more depth. "I came to Western New Mexico University because I wanted to study zoology. This is the only zoology program in the state, which is kind of surprising because there are a lot of really interesting animals in New Mexico," he said.

He remains confident he made the right decision, not only because he enjoys being so close to the Gila, but also because the small class sizes have made it easy to learn one-on-one. Said Eastman, "In my department, in Harlan [Hall] generally, every professor is really open to talking during their office hours or whenever they are available."

"Overall, at WNMU," he said, "I have really great professors."