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Perhaps the most important consideration for zoos in hiring people is experience. Some zoos will hire people who have only a high school education if they have had experience working in a zoo before. A person with no experience working in a zoo can get some experience in two ways:
Volunteer Work Internships
Some students will already have had one or more of these experiences before coming to Oswego. Students who go to Santa Fe will have two years of hands-on experience as part of their program there. Students who decide to complete their degree at Oswego without going to Santa Fe, and are still interested in working in a zoo should consider the possibility of doing internships at a zoo or an aquarium.
Zoo Internships:
- Give students valuable experience working in a zoo or aquarium
- Allow students to decide if zoo work is really what they want to do
- Allow students to make contact with people who can write them letters of recommendation for zoo jobs after graduation
- Allow students to prove their abilities in a work environment
Oswego students have recently done internships at the following zoos:
- Buffalo Zoo
Bronx Zoo
Central Park Zoo
Columbus Zoo
Mystic Aquarium - Rosamond Gifford Zoo at Burnet Park
Seneca Park Zoo
Thompson Park Zoo
Philadelphia Zoo
Examples of Oswego Zoology Students in Recent Zoo Internships:
How to Set Up an Internship:
Oswego college's office of Experience-Based Education is located in the Compass (x2151). Students should first attend an orientation workshop for internships, where requirements for internships and application process will be explained. Workshops are offered approximately twice a week, and the schedule can be picked up in 142 Campus Center, or can be found online at http://www.oswego.edu/ebe. At the workshop, students will be given an application packet. The application process includes the following steps:
Students must locate and contact a zoo, aquarium, or other facility where they would like to do an internship. The office of Experience Based Education maintains a file on places and contact people where students have done internships in the past. The student applies to the zoo, aquarium, or facility in which they are interested. Once accepted, the student makes an appointment with their internship facility to discuss what will be expected of them. This will depend on the student's interests and the needs of the facility providing the internship. Few internships pay, but some paying jobs can be done as internships, provided the facility is willing to do the paper work and the student has a faculty sponsor and does the academic work.
A list of job responsibilities: This is part of Oswego's application packet, and must be filled out with the person in charge of internships at the place where the student will be working.
Faculty Sponsor: Students must find a faculty member who is willing to sponsor their internship, and work with them in designing the internship and in evaluating their papers.
Learning Agreement: The student and faculty sponsor design a set of learning objectives that the student would like to get out of the internship. These can vary from learning particular job skills to deciding whether they want to go into this line of work.
Evaluation Criteria: The student and faculty sponsor develop a specific set of criteria by which the internship will be evaluated. Three of these are required:
- The student must write a Topic paper
- The student must write a Final Summary Paper
- The Site Supervisor must write an evaluation of the student's performance
- One or two additional exercises must be chosen, depending on how many hours of credit the student wants for the internship. These include keeping a reflective journal of the internship experience, interviewing professionals in the field, or writing an additional topic paper
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