Animal Travels

I’m a student at Franklin & Marshall College studying Biological Foundations of Behavior (Animal Behavior). I’ve known for as long as I can remember that I wanted to work with animals, and in elementary school, gave the quintessential answer to what I wanted to be when I grew up: a veterinarian, despite my aversion to the thought of cutting animals open (or even watching it on Animal Planet). In m

iddle school, I changed that to marine biologist, despite the fact that I can effectively get motion sickness from a boat in a river. Finally, at the beginning of high school, I decided one morning to engage in the rare activity of reading the newspaper. There was an article about Jeff Corwin, and he was described as an “Animal Conservationist”. Despite the confusion that this title caused my school counselor, teachers, and any adult that asked what I would do when I grew up, I clung to it. Movies like Born Free and just about any animal show on National Geographic Wild served as a foundation for what I wanted to do, and the experiences I’ve had, and will have, serve to cement my initial ideas. There’s just something about knowing that what you’re telling someone is something they’ve never heard before, and can help conservation efforts in the long run. About knowing that what you’re doing is helping to preserve the biodiversity on this planet, even if it means by just a few spider monkeys. I was always told I’d end up changing my major when I got to school, but as I took the typical liberal arts requirements, none of them were as interesting as my Animal Behavior class the fall of my sophomore year. Because college offers the perfect time for travel—whether it’s the four months of summer break, or the ability to study in another country and still not fall behind—I’m trying to get in as much travel as I can in the four years. It’s really one of the only times that I can get funding to go to Panama for an internship, or pay the same amount to study in Tanzania as I would in Lancaster, PA. So the idea of this website came to mind: a place where I could keep friends and family updates on what was going on, and also a place where others thinking of majoring in Animal Behavior (or a similar major) can read about the places I’ve been, and find a place to start getting some experience with animals. When I volunteered at Mystic Aquarium in high school, one thing the workers kept telling me was to be sure that I got as much experience as possible. But when I was looking for internships, or volunteering opportunities, many didn’t offer housing, and those that did were for students that had already gotten a lot of experience, and/or were at least juniors in high school. When I did find places to volunteer out of the country, the amount of money charged by the agency that “paired you up” with the sanctuaries was often more than I paid in tuition. And then I found some places that had some pretty bad reviews, and some that had no reviews for volunteering/interning. So I decided this website could be a good place to write down my experiences, so other potential volunteers can get an idea themselves, and find places they might want to spend a couple of months.