Alumni Profiles
From martyrology to herpetology: A CMU alum's global journey of curiosity, community, and conservation
25 at 25 | Tai Linklater (CMU '25)
Tai Linklater (CMU '25) completed a BA with an interdisciplinary major in ecological pacifism and a minor in biology. The degree, and the whole interdisciplinary approach of CMU, deeply nurtured their love of learning, especially across such a variety of fields.
A few days after graduating from CMU in 2025, Tai Linklater was in an airplane on the way to the Netherlands. The 23-year-old from Altona, MB travelled an ocean away from CMU, and yet it was present in almost every adventure of their two-week trip, a microcosm of their university experience: curiosity and community.
While at CMU, Linklater took a course on The Martyrs Mirror, a chronicle of the persecution and martyrdom of Anabaptist Christians particularly in the 16th century, with Professor of Philosophy and Theology Chris Huebner. Linklater and a fellow classmate met up with Huebner, who was on sabbatical doing research in Amsterdam, and together they toured many of the historical sites where the book's stories took place. They even did an escape room based on one of the martyr accounts, in the very area where it occurred hundreds of years ago.
Linklater also visited Dutch friends they made during their CMU work-integrated learning placement at the Assiniboine Park Conservancy in Winnipeg. "I worked with the conservation and research department," they said. "My main focuses were helping with their bird window collision mitigation program, polar bear behaviour monitoring, and I worked on a mitigation program for northern leopard frogs that got stuck in ecological traps throughout the park."
Their placement reinforced an interest in pursuing work in conservation education, but they don't want to rush into a career. "Even though I really do love what I studied at CMU, I just want to explore and figure out what I like and don't like," Linklater said.
Linklater earned a Bachelor of Arts, four-year honours, with an interdisciplinary major in ecological pacifism and a minor in biology. The degree, and the whole interdisciplinary approach of CMU, deeply nurtured their love of learning, especially across such a variety of fields. It's the part of Linklater's CMU experience that stand out most to them, along with the strong friendships they made.
"Seeing four different generations of first-year students come in, with myself being a first-year student at one point too... I observed that everyone can find their place at CMU," they said, repeating a sentence from their valedictorian address to the class of 2025. "I'm not going to say everyone at CMU gets along... but I do believe that anyone who comes to CMU will find their people." That sense of belonging has a profound positive impact on people's lives, they said, which "is why CMU's presence is important today."
Linklater developed a strong community living on-campus for all five years of their degree, so they're excited about the remarkable renovations to the Poettcker Hall residence building: "Poettcker is one of the central buildings of my CMU experience. Lots of my learning was done there, lots of my friendship building was done there." They're enthusiastic about other changes they've observed since starting at CMU, calling the core curriculum and particularly the Ways of Knowing course "innovative and exciting," and they're eager to see how things will continue to evolve.
Fulfilling a lifelong dream, the next chapter of Linklater's future holds an immersive exploration into herpetology, the study of reptiles and amphibians. They are volunteering at a reptile sanctuary in Ontario for six months, where they will be assisting with turtle conservation projects, surveys of wetlands and rattlesnake populations, and education programming.
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