Waccamaw Riverkeeper Cara Schildtknecht '17 Returns to Teach Sustainability Students

There might be no better job for Cara Schildtknecht than being the Waccamaw Riverkeeper. Schildtknecht earned a Master of Science in Coastal Marine and Wetland Studies at Coastal Carolina University in 2017. She became the Riverkeeper soon after that. This semester, Cara returned to CCU to teach a class within the HTC Honors College, which included water quality monitoring on campus and time spent kayaking the river.

Coastal Carolina University is a comprehensive, public liberal arts institution in Conway, South Carolina. More than 10,000 students from across the country and the world interact with a world-class faculty, and enjoy a nationally competitive NCAA I athletic program, an inspiring cultural calendar, and a tradition of community interaction that is fueled by more than 180 student clubs and organizations.
The University offers over 100 undergraduate and over 30 graduate-level (doctoral educational specialist, masters) major fields of study including specialized concentrations across six academic colleges. The University offers a Ph.D. in marine science: coastal and marine systems science, and a Ph.D. in education sciences. CCU boasts a growing array of internship, research, and international opportunities for students, as well as numerous online programs through Coastal Online.
The 17 Coastal Carolina athletic teams compete in Division I of the NCAA as members of the Sun Belt Conference. The University’s mascot is the Chanticleer, a proud, fierce, and quick-thinking rooster derived from Geoffrey Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales.” The football, softball, and baseball teams all compete in the new TD Sports Complex, which houses Springs Brooks Baseball Stadium. The baseball team won the College World Series in 2016.
Coastal Carolina University moved up 10 spots to No. 38 in the Regional Universities (South) list released by U.S. News & World Report for 2023. Now in its 38th year, the rankings evaluate more than 1,450 colleges and universities on up to 17 measures of academic quality.