Lifelong hunter Gary San Julian is taking aim at a new target this season -- creating a regional workshop by next fall to increase the number of hunters among fish and wildlife students at Penn State.

San Julian, a wildlife resources professor, took 20 students from Penn State and met with Wisconsin students for a workshop at the Max McGraw Wildlife Foundation in Illinois last fall.

The purpose of the trip, he said, was to study the area's wildlife and learn how hunting is part of the social fabric in American culture.

"These students are potential resource managers," he said, "and they'll have to learn to speak the language of hunters."

Ian Cunningham (junior-wildlife and fisheries science) said that the trip was a useful management tool and said he hopes the expansion is successful.

"We learned a lot more about the ethics of hunting more than actual hunting techniques," he said.

"It's a necessary aspect of wildlife management," he added.

The trip, San Julian said, gave students a chance to try something that they were not given an opportunity to do before.

"I've always wanted to try hunting, but I never really got a chance," Evan Stover (sophomore-material science and engineering) said.

San Julian credits the original workshop to Scott Craven, a wildlife ecology professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

After three years of attending, San Julian said he is trying to establish his own replica of the workshop, hosted by Penn State, for regional college students to have the same experience.

"Expanding the workshop would be great," Stover said. "It should be offered at more colleges."

To promote his ideas for the expanded workshop, San Julian created a video to be showcased at the North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference on March 22, he said.

The video explains the basics of the workshop -- fundamentals of hunting, hunting safety and hunting ethics.

San Julian said the next step is determining the number of instructors needed for a workshop of this size.

"Last fall, we had some of the best instructors in action," he said. "It would be great to have more like them."

San Julian said the original workshop in Illinois was "very successful," and the regional workshop should be easily established.

"We had five shotguns donated to the workshop, we have liability coverage, and students who already went felt it was worthwhile," he said.

One of these students is Amy Carrozzino (senior-wildlife and fisheries science), who was a participant in the workshop last year.

She said attending changed several students' viewpoints on hunting.

"Some people were afraid of guns and hunting going into the trip," she said. "But we were careful, and the instructors were very knowledgeable."

San Julian added that students who were opposed to hunting before the trip were still invited to attend as observers.

At the end of the week, students were treated to a meal of game meat that had been harvested from the hunt, San Julian said.

Stover said it was a good way to end the event.

"The meal was like a full circle," Stover said.

"It was exciting to go hunting and see the game not wasted," he added.