Internship
Lead Teen Wild Guide (TWG)
What I do
The internship I chose was to serve as a Lead Teen Wild Guide at the Oakland Zoo, primarily on Thursdays. Teen Wild Guides, or TWGs (Twigs) as we are often referred to as, are teenage volunteers in the Oakland Zoo’s Teen Wild Guide Program. We primarily serve as public educators who man stands and informational kiosks throughout the zoo, answering questions and explaining things to visitors. The job requires us to enforce the rules of the zoo (which are broken on a daily basis) and have immediate knowledge of whichever exhibit we are working at.
With that in mind, the average TWG job doesn’t have much direct work with the animal's in the zoo. As stated before, we are representatives and educators to the public, lacking the skills needed for zookeepers or elder docents. However we are often given the chance to work more closely with the zoo staff on “Keeper Days”, which can often consist of cleaning out or gardening in exhibits, or helping to prepare food and enrichment behind the scenes. We also tend to do at least one big “TWG trip” during the year, in which we travel somewhere to aide with environmental work.
However, being a Lead TWG is more of a staff role: seeing as there are only two heads of the program, Katie and Tomas, it’s hard to keep track of a program with such a large number of volunteers. Thus Lead TWGs are more experienced TWGs who are appointed with keeping all the other TWGs in line and providing aid where it is needed. This can be as small as helping to educate newcomers in the program to settling disputes and reporting situations to Katie and Tomas. We are also granted more privileges than normal TWGs, the most notable being the authorization to handle the presentation animal's on a day-to-day basis.
Lead TWGs are usually chosen from the more experienced and notably more responsible volunteers in the program. These are often TWGs who have been in the program for at least one or two whole years who have displayed the proper traits and skills. As I have been in the program since eighth grade and have thus been working in the program for quite awhile, I was eventually offered the chance to ‘audition’ for the role. I was noted for my knowledge and experience, and was recognized as being a good teacher for the newer TWGs, who I often found myself showing the ropes to. For me, becoming a Lead TWG would allow me to work more closely with a larger number of TWGs.
Hours done
Journal Entries
June 30th, 2016
The first day on the job was quite surprising, as the Lead TWG role was a bit slower than I realized. The workload largely depends on the situation with the TWGs present on a particular day, especially if there are or are not well-behaved TWGs. Today was a mix between fast-paced and slow, with a number of issues immediately popping up early on and then dying down in the afternoon.
This particular day gave me a glimpse at one of the more frustrating aspects of being a Lead, in the form of a problem I had never truly worked with before: the more troublesome TWGs.
It all started when I realized that there was just too few phones in the phonebox.
The TWG Program has a strict No Phones at work policy, seeing as a TWG constantly on their phone would be both disruptive and less approachable for zoo visitors. Thus we are all required to put our phones in a black box in the TWG meeting space (which is in fact just an off-limits section of the Goat Barn. Yes it smells like poop in there.), which is then locked and left on the counter. Anyone who is caught with their phone (it doesn’t matter if it’s in use or not.) is sent to Katie or Tomas for disciplinary action.
A number of the TWGs today ended up sneaking their phones into work, forcing Valerie and I to report a number of people. At one point one of the newcomers who had snuck their phone in tried to lie his way out, claiming he was expecting a call from his mother, who would tell him whether or not she would pick him up.
Another one of the TWGs, working in the Bug House, no less, we caught talking to a friend from outside the TWG program. She was sitting in the chair behind his station, while he was sitting on the ground, ignoring visitors passing by.
Later on I got the chance to watch Valerie work with one of the snakes.
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July 7th, 2016
Today was fortunately a much slower day, leaving less to write down and document. Of note was that, with Valerie arriving later than usual, I took it upon myself to set everything up in the morning. Following her motions from the previous week, I retrieved the main journal, and entered every person present into it.
There is little else of note.
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July 21st, 2016
I was unable to make it last week, so I came to make up today. A typical day with Valerie as my partner, though we had to deal with another cell phone incident.
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August 11th, 2016
Today was interesting, as it was the first day I was partnered with someone else other than Valerie. Although there was at first some confusion, my partner and I were able to cover all stations. However there was an instance near the end of the day when we failed to call-in an incident that would have been the responsibility of the program heads. Other than that, this day helped to make me confident that I could work without Valerie’s aid.