Blog 21 - Interview 4 Reflection

1. What is the most important thing I learned from the interview?  

• I learned how passionate and dedicated people are when they find something that they love doing. She helped me understand how important this is and how to get others to care about it the same way she does. She knows a lot of information about these animals and she's able to answer all of the public's questions in an knowledgeable way. 

2.  How will what I learned affect my final lesson?

• She has been in this field for 25 years. She has worked with them for most of her life and I've learned a lot in all fields that I can hopefully incorporate in my final lesson. For example, the certain activities that I can do for my lesson and new information regarding how these animals end up in these facilities. 

Blog 20 - Fourth Interview Questions

1. Who do you plan to interview? What is this person's area of expertise?

• Even though it didn't work out last time, I still want to try to get a hold of a worker from the Big Bear Alpine Zoo. This zoo doesn't just display the animals for education, but also has another section where they are rehabilitating them as well. 
• More specifically, I would like to interview Summer McElroy because she is the lead animal keeper. Since she interacts with the animals all the time, she will most likely understand the importance of increasing awareness.

2. Post 20 open-ended questions you want to ask an expert in the field concerning your senior project. Your focus should be finding answers to your EQ.

• What would you consider to be the most important factor in the role that you play in the Alpine Zoo?
• Why did you choose to go into this field?
• Any experiences with prior animals that influenced you?
• In what ways would you try to encourage the public to participate in certain environmental issues?
• What are some of the factors that are necessary to care for the animal.
• What made you care for animals?
• Zoo's are used for educational purposes, however they are also used for entertainment. What is your opinion?
• Is there some sort of goal that you work towards while working at this organization?
• Do you think raising awareness is important?
• If so why?
• What are some of the most effective methods or techniques that can be used to raise awareness?
• Interaction? Experiences? Issues? Activities? Reach-outs?
• What made you become aware?
• Have you ever taught a group of adults or children?
• In what ways do you think the public learns?
• Interaction?
• What would you say is the most important topic to educate them with?
• What activities did you find the most effective and fun for the children?
• How do you make them care?
• Is it difficult?
• Why are wildlife educators important?
• How can a wildlife educator most effectively spread awareness?
• Why does there have to be animal rehabilitation facilities?
• What are some of the main reasons that animals end up in organizations like the zoo or the nature centers?
• Has this job experience impacted your life in any way?
• Do you think other people can have similar experiences and have the same effect?
• If yes, what types of experiences?
• What age group do you think is the most important to educate?
• Or all? And if so why?
• Knowing about all the environmental issues happening around the world, what are some of the methods that can be used to prevent them?
• What is important to you?
• How do you prevent zoochosis? (a psychological condition of animals kept in circuses and zoos)

Blog 17 - Interview 3 Reflection

1. What is the most important thing I learned from the interview?

• I learned that I've been only focusing on ways to educate the public and have them interact with the environment, that I didn't notice why they are even moving away from it in the first place. Throughout the interview my mentor also helped me realize that finding ways to raise awareness is not necessarily the most difficult, but trying to make them care about it is.

2. How has your approach to interviewing changed over the course of your senior project?

• The very first interviews that I've conducted didn't really seem to get me the information that I wanted. I feel like part of the problem were the questions that I had made. Maybe they weren't structured right and it carried the conversation into a different direction. However, I'm really proud of the way this interview came out because I knew the kind of information I was looking for. It's fun to talk to people who are passionate about the same thing that you are. 

Blog 14 - Interview 3 Preparation

EQ: How can a wildlife educator most effectively spread awareness?

1. Who do you plan to interview? What is this person's area of expertise?

• My goal is to hopefully get a worker from the Big Bear Alpine Zoo. They have a section of animals that are taken care of and used for educational purposes, as well as another section where they are rehabilitating others.
• If the scheduling of the appointment doesn't seem to function, I'll interview my mentor. Since I've switched mentors three times, I think at some point or another I should officially interview him to get an insight of his opinions about certain topics.

2. Verify that you have called your interviewee to schedule an interview. What is the date and time of the interview?

• I do not currently have a set time and date for my interview, but I am waiting on an email that hopefully will be responded to soon.

3. Phrase an open-ended question that will help you find research resources that would help to answer the EQ. 

• Do you have any articles or a book that you've come across that may be a good resource for this topic?
• Is there a specific author or organization that you read and have found valuable?
• Relating to Wildlife Care and Awareness

4. Phrase an open-ended question that will help you think about other useful activities you might do to help you answer the EQ.

• What is your daily goal when working in this organization? 
• Have you ever taught a group of kids about the types of animals at your center?
• If so what activities did you conduct and have found to be the most fun and effective for the children?
• Are there any other activities that you recommend?

5. Phrase two open-ended questions that help you to understand your interviewee's perspective on an aspect of your EQ.

• What techniques or methods do you believe are one of the most effective when spreading awareness?
• Do you believe that teaching the public is important? Why or why not?
• How can a wildlife educator most effectively spread awareness?
• My essential question (so I can get feedback)

Blog 10 - Interview 2 Reflection

1. Please explain how you are spending your mentorship time (Is it at a workplace or somewhere else? Are you shadowing? Are you able to do tasks that are meaningfully related to the topic? If so, what? Are there other people who are experts in the location? Etc...)

• I am doing my mentorship at a nature center that basically represents a workplace. The days I come in there's always staff members working around the nature center, making sure everything's clean and that the animals have what they need. They take me with them and have me help in whatever needs to be done. There's times where I mop the floors or clean the restrooms, but I'm also able to feed the animals and clean their cages.

2. How did you find your mentor? How did you convince this person to help you?

• At first I was looking for an animal rehabilitation facility, but it was hard to find one that was not far away. I had some help from Ms, Ortega and she recommended San Dimas Nature Center. I called and asked about their program and they gave me the information. I started volunteering and after a while I told her about my project. She was very interested in it and was glad to help.

3. How would you rate your comfort level with you mentor at this point in your relationship? How does this relate to the time you've spent so far at mentorship/with this person?

• From one to ten, I would say around a seven. She's always the one who guides me and tells me what needs to be done. I feel like we have a good relationship that's not overly comfortable, but not stiff either.

4. What went well in this interview? Why do you think so? What do you still need to improve? How do you know? How will you go about it?

• I thought that I had good questions to start off with because I was able to get some information about her background, as well as the nature center. What I feel like I lack on, is my expression of the question. I find myself stuttering a couple of times and it loses the meaning of the question. I think if I practice the questions a little more before hand, it should fix my situation.

Blog 7 - Second Interview Preparation

1. Who is your mentor and where do they work? If their workplace does not reflect their expertise, what makes them an expert?

• My mentor is Ronny Gregory and he is in charge of the San Dimas Nature Center. He assures that there's food in stock and that the animals are in good health conditions. He manages the certain programs held at the center and guides the employees to what needs to be done. He makes sure that the nature center functions smoothly. 

2. What five questions will you ask them about their background?

• How long have you been at the nature center and what influenced you to pursue a career in that field?
• What are some of the things you learned or found interesting when you first started your job?
• Was there any education or certificates you needed to get in order to be working at a nature center? Any training?
• What distinguishes this particular job from the rest of your previous ones and what persuaded you into staying in this field? (He's had many experiences with many different jobs.)
• What was your original career path that you wanted to pursue and how has it morphed to the one you currently are in?
• How has it impacted your life?

Blog 5 - Interview 1 Reflection

1. What is the most important thing I learned from the interview? Is there anything I would do differently for other interviews?

• I learned that communication is very important when handling a nature center and these wildlife animals. These facilities must have connections with others that are similar in order to be able to help each other. They work with veterinarians, rehabilitators, and other nature centers. Animals that are no longer able to be rehabilitated are put in nature centers as educational animals. That way they are able to nurture them and raise money for them by educating the public. Veterinarians are used by both nature centers and rehab facilities. Rehabiltitators ask them for their opinion and work together to provide the right treatment. In nature centers, if one of their animals are injured, they take them to a special veterinarian. 

2. Did I get additional resources and contacts? What is the most useful? Why?

• It turns out that they have a library at their nature center and might be great as sources for research. There's also this organization called Wild Wings that is rehabilitating hawks at their center and know many other organizations that deal with the same topic. I feel like this is the most important because it opens up your opportunities to have more experiences. They usually come every Saturday and I'm hoping to go one of these Saturdays to be able to talk to them. Hopefully I'll then be able to go to the other organizations every once and a while.

3. What makes my interviewee qualified to help me?

• Alvaro O. Guzman has been working at the facility for more than five years. He came into the job not knowing much and had to specifically be train to learn how to handle the animals. He was also given information about what is needed for each of their wildlife animals at the center. He is currently the only staff member at the facility who is able to handle the hawks and introduce them to the public.

Blog 3 - First Interview Preparation

1. Who do you plan to interview? Why?

• There are two types of wildlife rehabilitators. The first wildlife rehabilitator is the most common one because they are the ones who take care of these animals in a facility. The other rehabilitator is home-based. In this case they have their own facility at home. They must follow all the federal wildlife rehabilitation regulations and criteria. I plan to interview either one or the other. I eventually want to fully interview both because I feel like it would be interesting to be able to compare them. Maybe they are able to obtain more of a variety of species in a facility rather than a home.

2. Five questions will be assigned to all seniors to ask. What additional questions do you plan to ask? Ask open-ended questions.

• What motivated or interested you in becoming a wildlife rehabilitator? 
• Are there any goals that you were hoping to achieve before you joined the organization? If not, did you make any for yourself along the way?
• What do you feel is the most important skill to acquire when nurturing or training an animal? Why?
• How do you know when an animal is ready to be released into their natural habitat and how do you feel when you release it? Where do you release them?
• What kind of species do you take in?
• Is there anything that all animals have in common when you train them? 
• Is there a special technique that you use that is most successful when training them?