Last fall on the first day of classes, Biology Professor Justin Fiene made his students an offer. He was looking for someone who could use a series of wildlife photos he had taken with a trail camera and turn them into a children's book. Princess Figueroa, who was in her first week of classes after coming to OCC from Liverpool High School, immediately jumped at the opportunity. "In high school I took a class on child development and I thought I could use what I had learned to make the book simple and easy for children to understand. I knew how kids think," said Figueroa. "We met and I briefly and broadly described the vision," added Fiene. "A lot of detail needed to be worked out. From there she went to work on her own."
Fiene had gathered amazing photos from a trail camera he had mounted in the Cicero Swamp. He had daytime and nighttime photos of deer, raccoon, wild turkey, coyote, fox, and great blue heron. Figueroa began working on simple language to put with the photos. By the final month of the semester, she had completed the first draft. Fiene sent the draft to his mother, Judy, who is an English professor. She suggested edits, Fiene and Figueroa worked through them and by July of 2019 they had published a book, "Discovering Animal Life Using Hidden Cameras." "For eight months we were a team," said Fiene. "It was so nice to be able to depend on Princess. It was a collaboration. There were gaps she filled in, editing this and tweaking that. She took ownership of the process while allowing our visions to create it."
At the moment there is only one copy of the book. Fiene has shared it with children who attend OCC's on-campus child care facility, the Children's Learning Center. His mother thinks they could use this same format and create books for children of all ages. "She suggested we use these photos but bump up the language a notch for students in higher grades," he said. "I'd definitely love to do something like this again," added Figueroa. "It was a really good experience."
