That time of year again

Hey There,

The internship committee is gearing up again for the upcoming internship summer season. We had a few interns out in the field over Winter Break, one out in Utah working with Outward Bound and another down in MA working with their local police station. This Spring we have several interns working their internship into their Spring Course load. Students are interning with Lakeside Alpaca Farm in Thorndike,ME; The Bronx Zoo; and Maine Primitive Skills School. I am always amazed at the incredible opportunities out there.

Here's a few changes that our happening on the internship front. First we have a new member of the internship committee. We are very happy to have Sarah Cunningham our new Captive Wildlife Care and Education Professor on board with us. Alysa Remsburg has step down to allow time to take on new challenges in the world of academia. Thanks to Alysa for a great year and all your great input.

The new and improved internship handbook is just about complete and should be heading out to print next week. Keep posted. No major changes to the program; however students will now have the ability to blog as their journal option.

Just a reminder to newer students, We will be having a series of internship workshops in late February. In the meantime please come by the Career Resource Center if you have any questions.

Don't forget to get your resume ready. The CRC will be hosting a resume week next week come in and receive resume paper, snacks and a resume face lift. We also have up to date information on how to submit your resume online, how to develop an electronic signature and how to save your information in a PDF format. Great Stuff for sure.

One last thing. There's a new face in the CRC. We are happy to have Ryan Howes working as our Experiential Programs Assistant, he'll be here too to help you develop the skills necessary to compete in your field. Ryan is a Unity Alum and most recently finished his masters degree in Experiential Education. He is an avid outdoorsman, favoring time climbing rock and ice.

Look forward to hearing from you all.

Internship Season Coming to A Close

Hey Folks,

Hope your internships are wrapping up well. It's been great seeing folks on campus already and hearing about their summers and internships. I've met with two candidates for the Wildlife Care and Education Faculty. Both are very strong and would bring great energy and experience to the program. The search committee and institution is serious about expediting the selection process and finding the best candidate possible for the position. Have faith and take part in the process as much as you can. FYI.. Jillian Travisano is on the search committee and has shown great leadership and representation. Although she can't share specifics about the search, I am sure she is open to your input.

Questions have been popping from students who had Amy D. as a faculty sponsor, as far as I know Angela Hardy will be faculty sponsor for all of Amy's interns. If you haven't had a chance to meet Angela please do so as soon as possible. She's very sweet, supportive and student oriented.

A few reminders...your faculty sponsor will need to attend your public presentation. I have a copy of your supervisor evaluation. This will need to be included in your portfolio. Please stop in the CRC M-F from 8-10 to pick it up. If your busy during that time period you can pop in try to catch me or make an appointment with Joe Galli.

If you have time please stop by and chat with me. I would love to hear about your experiences and how it all worked out for you.

Take Care,

Nicole

Clover Street Makes the News

Cheetah Keeper Update

As for an update on my internship I'm officially a Cheetah Keeper now. It
comes with a lot of responsibilities and a bit of stress but I'm 100%
capable of dealing with it. This sound weird saying this but I really do
feel like an adult now. I have very little time off now that I'm responsible
for half the Cheetahs here and another intern who has been here longer is in
charge of the other half. We both work together as a team to make sure
everything runs smoothly which is not always the case. We have Cheetah Runs
in the morning for guests, which is a lure system with a piece of rag tied
on it that the cheetahs run after. This involves making sure there is meat
cut up, setting up the run, making sure guest are safe while in the
enclosure, and giving talks to the public about Cheetahs. Next in my day is
feeding and cleaning. This is what takes up most of my day here. This
involves getting meat ( 2 kg of each donkey) for 25 cheetahs, driving around
to each enclosure and checking fences for holes, locking them up in one pen
so we are able to clean and feed in the other, collecting fecal samples from
each cat for testing from worms, parasites, and hormones, disposing of all
left over bones or donkey heads, and also checking (by observation only)
each cat to make sure its healthy and has nothing wrong with it. Then at the
end of my day I need to log feedings for each cheetah and log anything that
was out of the ordinary.
Other jobs that I do here is give tours to guests around the facility,
logging camera trap photos, cleaning the goat pen, waterhole cleaning,
work-ups on wild cheetahs that have been caught, freezing sperm from male
cheetahs and processing it in our Genome Recourse Bank, and game counts. I
love every minute here and I cant believe that I have less than 2 weeks
left. I'm a little bummed out that I finally get Cheetah keeper status here
and soon will have to leave but at least I can say I was a cheetah keeper
here because it is not a position they give to just anyone and it will look
great on my resume too.

-Whitney

Don't mess with Texas

This summer is flying by. I have had many crazy adventures that are so full of detail that I couldn't possibly write them all here. I may not like research but I do enjoy doing field work. Most of my time has been spent collecting data and samples on various rivers and streams throughout the state of Texas. Through my experiences I have learned not to mess with Texas. My most memorable trip so far was about 2 weeks ago. We left for Big Sandy Creek in the Big Thicket Preserve on a thursday and we were supposed to be back at SHSU by evening on friday for 4th of July celebrations. Unfortunately our creek turned into an endurance test that I think even a few Marines would have difficulty with. The two day trip ended up being 4 days and 3 nights with little food, chlorinated river water, and badly bashed bodies. We paddled our canoes full of gear about 20% of the time and had to lift, pull, or push the canoes the other 80%. Downed trees were everywhere and the water was too murky to see all of the limbs in the water. We ran into venomous snakes, giant spiders, fell on bald cypress knees, got eaten by bugs, cut open our hands, arms, and legs, sprained ankles, and had the time of our lives. The trip was a true self-esteem boost. I felt like on of Charlie's Angels when we made it to our take out 2 days late. It was awesome. Just remember that if you bite Texas, it'll bite back. Enjoy the rest of summer.

Update from Jessica Curtis at the Caldwell Zoo in Tyler, TX

This summer is flying by faster than I imagined..
I'm a "Zoo Teacher" at the Caldwell Zoo in Tyler Texas, and I work with kids ranging in age from 4 to 16 years old. In addition to that I get to do Discovery Carts through out the entire zoo. I get to teach people about all different kinds of animals such as cats, giraffe, rhinos, elephants, birds, reptiles, etc.. I love doing these because I get to show people a real elephant tooth, a rhino horn or a piece of ribbon that shows how long a giraffes tongue really is; Or even how far a puma/mountain lion can jump with a running start (40 feet!). And people of all ages absolutely seem to love it. I also get to go out and do outreaches to local parks, libraries, and elderly homes.

Today we started our Zoo-niversity camp. It's for highschool students (9th -12th grade) who want to see what its like to be a zoo keeper. They get to work side by side the keepers cleaning exhibits, spend some time with the vet, our registrar, the commisary, and all other aspects of the zoo. This is the first time the zoo has done it and it seems to be going very well so far.

I've also been able to shadow different departments in the zoo, like the birds and reptile department, mammals 2 and mammals 1. The mammals 1 department is by far my favorite department. Shadowing this department and having my experience in the education department has really showed me that I do not want a career in education. There's just way too much down time. I can't sit around and do nothing for days at a time. Yes we create lesson plans and cut out tons of paper and foam crafts ( I might have carpel tunnel by the time this internship is over, hahaha), but that doesn't take much time at all. I would love to work in a zoo setting with hoofstock (especially giraffe, kudu, and zebra) as well as rhino and elephants. Here at the Caldwell Zoo we have training shows and meet the keepers, and that is the perfect amount of education for me. I can't see myself as a Zoo Teacher.. the kids are absolutely amazing and very suprising, but not for me.

But that's the point of an internship, it helps you realize what you truly want to do..

*~Jess Curtis~*

Wildlife Care&Education Club-Vice President
Sugar Makers-Treasurer

"I've always felt that animals are the purest spirits in the world. They don't fake or hide their feelings, and they are the most loyal creatures on Earth. And somehow we humans think we're smarter—what a joke."- Pink

Getting better every day

So the summer is almost over and a part of me doesn't want it to be. I am loving the work I do at my internship. I am getting way more hands on here that at TRT. In the past couple of weeks i've administered drugs to sick crows, held Ospreys as their wounds get treated, wrapped wings on several song birds, and fed nestling and fledgeling American Kestrals. Things are going great and I am loving it!

We had some exciting goings on this week. Louis Bevier who is doing research on the current existance of the Ivory Billed Woodpecker came down. From the evidence, the infamous Luaneu video sugguests that the Ivory Billed Woodpecker is not extinct and that atleast one survivor is still out there. What Louis believes is that the video shows a Pileated Woodpecker and not an Ivory Billed. So we had three Pileateds that were going to be release, he came down for the day and filmed them being released so he could use it as research for the debate. It was cool! Personally I think its a Pileated but what do I know?

Well I dont have much to say at the moment but I'm sure i'm forgetting somthing.
Hope everyones summer is going well!

J-Trav