Meet Outstanding Junior Max Clark

Max Clark, a wildlife major, was selected as Purdue Forestry and Natural Resources’ Outstanding Junior for 2025-26. He has gained a wealth of knowledge and experience through internships and club involvement.

“I’m honored to have been named the FNR Outstanding Junior for 2025-26,” Clark said. “I’ve been involved with the department since I started here and joined Student Council as a freshman. Since then, I’ve continued to increase my involvement in the department and worked hard to balance high grades, work, leadership roles and more. Getting this award has affirmed that all of my hard work is paying off, and it inspires me to continue working as hard as I have been. I’m very proud to have been selected to represent my class, as I have worked and grown alongside these people throughout my undergraduate studies. My peers have shaped my experiences and me as a person, so I am happy to be a representative of what we have achieved.

“Being selected for this award means a lot to me, as it reflects my personal growth during my time in FNR. I think it also represents that the impact I’ve worked to have here is being recognized, and I hope I can continue to have a positive impact on the FNR community. This award has additional meaning to me, as I can be the visibility and representation that I did not have growing up and starting at Purdue. Our field can be unfortunately lacking in diversity and representation, so I am glad to contribute to representing my community as a transgender man. I hope this can inspire younger LGBTQ+ people to continue on in this field and remind them that they have a place.”

The Indianapolis native is involved with both the Purdue Student Chapter of The Wildlife Society and the FNR Student Council. With TWS, he acted as the mammals working group leader last year and currently is serving as the club’s treasurer. He attended the international TWS conference in 2024 and 2025 and earned the TWS involvement award as a freshman. In January, Max began serving as the undergraduate representative for the North Central Section of The Wildlife Society. With STUCO, he has acted as freshman representative and sophomore representative and is the current secretary.

Academically, he has been on the Dean’s list and earned semester honors since his arrival on campus. He attended the Natural History in Costa Rica spring break study abroad trip in March 2026. Max also has earned Project WET and Project Aquatic WILD certifications during his time at Purdue.

Beyond the classroom and clubs, Max has gained field experience each year. Since October 2024, Max has worked as a biological science technician for USDA APHIS Wildlife Services. In that role, he uses wildlife harassment techniques to manage and control American crow populations and movement. He also conducts deer management tasks from field dressing to sampling for disease. Max also has participating in sampling for highly pathogenic avian influenza in hunter-harvested waterfowl.

In the summer of 2024, he served as a nature education intern with the Wild Bear Nature Center, assisting educators in planning and implementing creative hands-on full day nature programs for children 5-12 years old. He also led and supervised outdoor activities such as fishing and hiking, and educating children how to use compasses and fishing rods. He also led nature-themed crafts, games and activities.

From May to December 2024, Max worked under Purdue extension wildlife specialist Jarred Brooke as a research assistant. In that position, he accurately identified and catalogued various wildlife species caught on camera trap images and input them into a web-based program called Wildlife Insights.

In the summer of 2025, Max served as a vegetation technician on the Hardwood Ecosystem Experiment. He collected vegetation and overstory measurements of forest plots from diameter at breast height to height, condition, light field, canopy level dead class and percent bark.

In the fall of 2025, Max was a teaching assistant for Ecology and Systematics of Fish and Herpetofauna under Drs. Dylan Wainwright and Patrick Ruhl. He assisted students in learning the course material and preparing for exams, graded assignments and engaged students through study sessions and Socratic questioning in class.