During spring break, I traveled with the OSU Zoology Club to North Carolina to volunteer at Possumwood Acres Wildlife Sanctuary (PAWS) and Lynnwood Park Zoo. PAWS focuses on the rescue and rehabilitation of wildlife, and I was able to work with crows, raptors, and ducks by cleaning their enclosures and/or feeding them. It was fun to learn about the animals that were housed there and to interact with wildlife that are commonly found but people normally do not have the chance to make contact with.

Lynnwood Park Zoo had a great assortment of animals, and I got to see the inner workings of a small zoo. My tasks got me up close with emus, reptiles, livestock animals, primates, and more. The picture above is an African porcupine quill that I picked up while cleaning their enclosure. Besides feeding and cleaning, we learned about other aspects of care that we got to do hands-on practice for, such as trimming hooves on a donkey. We also got to interact with guests by doing keeper talks, which involved cramming a lot of information about a particular animal and presenting it for guests to see and touch. While there, I did my first ever vaccination on a mini horse aptly named Tiny, which I personally feel is a huge milestone in my career.

This trip taught me a lot about animal care and communication, and it assured me that going down the veterinary path is something that I am enthusiastic about.

The above picture is a t-shirt designed for SerenAIDe, which is a charity concert that my high school choir puts on every spring. SerenAIDe was originally organized years ago in memory of a previous choir teacher’s husband who was diagnosed with ALS, and in the following years we have been able to raise money for local families who have been affected by an ALS diagnosis. I was able to really get involved starting in my junior year after joining choir council by heading a concert committee, the same year we decided to branch out and donate to Women for Women International, an organization that supports women wartime survivors. In my senior year we planned to donate to Live for the Moment, a leukemia and lymphoma charity. As a part of both the choir council and the Tri-M Music Honor Society board, I had the added responsibility of communicating information to members of the honor society along with leading a concert committee. There was a setback of going online, but we were still able to pull off a livestream concert and raise thousands of dollars. SerenAIDe was inspiring in that it was a way to see a relatively small group coming together to support the community, and I am grateful for the opportunities that I had to contribute to it.