Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center – Intern
This summer, I completed a 200 hour internship at WWCC. As an intern, I helped with day to day animal care that extended beyond my volunteering tasks: I administered and logged medication, hand-fed sick or injured animals that could not feed themselves, and helped with full body exams of animals brought in to the shelter. I was also able to work along side the center’s veterinarian: I performed x-rays and check-ups on previously treated patients and helped asses the success of their treatments, I assisted during surgeries by ensuring the animal stayed stable under anesthesia, and learned how to properly log and keep track of all medical documents.
Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center – animal caretaker volunteer
Since my sophomore year of high school, I have volunteered at the Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center (WWCC) in Huntington Beach, California. The WWCC is a nonprofit wildlife shelter dedicated to restoring the health of injured or orphaned local wild animals and protecting their environment. As a volunteer, I was able to assist in a range of medical procedures such as full-body exams of rescued animals, tube- and syringe-feeding, subcutaneous injections, as well as CPR and euthanasia. I also performed day-to-day husbandry tasks, prepared diets for the animals and helped train and mentor new volunteers.
Guide Dogs for the Blind – volunteer puppy raiser
Throughout high school I raised and trained 3 puppies for the Guide Dogs for the Blind organization. As a puppy raiser, I gave the puppy basic obedience training and exposed the puppy to a variety of environments in order to prepare it for professional guide dog training. I also attended monthly meetings and organization wide events. One of the puppies, Corky, is now working at a seeing-eye dog in Arizona, the second, Summit, is a breeder, and the third, Vroom, was dropped from the program and adopted as a pet due to medical reasons.