My Experience at The Wild Center
Sometimes in life you have to take risks and just hope that everything is going to work out and be awesome. Applying for the Teen Educator position at The Wild Center was one of those risks. For the Summer of 2018, I worked Monday through Wednesday at The Wild Center, a natural history museum with exhibits (including over 900 live animals), trails, and a river and pond. I was surrounded by an amazing community, and learned so much about myself and the world around me.
On top of the normal concerns (What if my coworkers don't like me? What if I mess up and get fired? What if Leanne is super mean?), I also worried about being away from my home in Vermont. I would be spending quite a lot of my summer in Tupper Lake, New York, approximately 2.5 hours away from my animals, friends, family, library, and everything else I loved. I'd grown up visiting every summer, and already knew the campus like the back of my hand, but this job connected me to The Wild Center even more. By the 3rd week in, I found myself back in Vermont for the weekend, and homesick for The Wild Center. Not only had this job introduced me to incredible new people and topics, but it had also created a bit of a home, and with home comes family.
The staff at The Wild Center were some of the nicest people I had ever met. Immediately after walking into our first training, I knew that I was joining a team, not just of Teen Educators, but of every staff member working there. Part of the program's goal is to help raise successful youth, and it focused a bit on making us all more independent. As important as independence is, so is being part of a team and having support from people around you. The Wild Center has managed to create the perfect combination of support and independence. It's a nice feeling to know that a team of people wants you to succeed and has your back. When I struggled with setting up a table, a summer intern was there to help teach me how. If I couldn't answer a question, I knew another staff member would have the answer. We were on our own for most of the day, but if something went wrong or we needed help, it was reassuring to know that we had support in every member of the staff.
While part of The Wild Center’s goal was to have teens out on the floor, interacting with people, and helping The Wild Center, it felt like the goal was also for us to be successful as people. The experience was heavily focused on reflecting, goals, and growth. We each had journals, and we were given prompts or encouraged to write whatever we wanted. At the beginning of the summer we had individual meetings to set goals, and to think about what we wanted to get out of this experience. It's amazing how much focus was on us, even though the overall goal was improving The Wild Center. This job helped me learn what I'm capable of, and it helped me realize that I can be a lot more independent than I thought. Being in such a supportive environment made it so much easier to take risks, and grow as a person. Not only did I learn a lot about myself, but I also learned a lot about the world around me.
For the first week of work, we went through multiple different lessons and trainings, varying from climate change to customer service. Learning didn't stop after that first week though, we were constantly trying new things and learning new facts. Education happened in a whole bunch of ways! Some mornings we hung out in Planet Adirondack, while Leanne and Michael gave us challenges to complete or things to research. We thought more about how climate change impacts us, by having a conversation and telling our stories to a group of 24 teachers interested in bringing climate change farther into their classrooms. One day we went stand up paddleboarding, which was a fun way to investigate more about what's living in the water. I'm not really a science person, but I found myself eagerly peering into a microscope to observe what's living in our pond water. We also had research time scattered into our week, a chance to research or work on anything we were interested in. Some teens chose to show their learning by giving a short formal presentation in Planet Adirondack, first researching a topic, then learning how to write a presentation, and finally presenting it to the public. Being a Teen Educator means that now I know more about so many different things, without feeling like I've sat through lectures. The Wild Center makes learning, along with many other things, really fun.
The job consisted of being out on the floor a lot, interacting with people at trunks (Activities, usually kept in trunks or boxes, to set up around The Wild Center), in Planet Adirondack, in the Naturalist’s Cabinet, and doing outdoor programs. The interactions I've had with visitors at these activities has been insanely powerful. Whether it's bug catching with a group of toddlers, or chatting for half an hour with a grandparent about climate change, every interaction is unique. It's very rewarding to have a child hug you after building a sand mountain, or to see someone's face light up after learning something new. Working with people of all different ages and backgrounds also taught me a lot. Before this job, young children scared me a bit, but after a summer of building sand landscapes with them, I now feel more comfortable than I ever have. Most evenings all the Teen Educators gathered together and talked about the amazing conversations and interactions that we had that day, because they were just that impactful.
Being a Teen Educator helped me grow a lot as a person. I made friends, made money, learned a lot, and got to have fun while doing it all. It was a life changing job in the best way. These experiences will help me in the rest of my life, and I am so grateful to The Wild Center for that. For anyone who's considering applying in the future, I say you absolutely should! You won't regret it. If there's one thing I learned, it's that some chances are worth taking. I'm not sure what opportunities are next for me, but being a Teen Educator at The Wild Center is an experience I will take with me, no matter where I go or what I choose to do with my life.
On top of the normal concerns (What if my coworkers don't like me? What if I mess up and get fired? What if Leanne is super mean?), I also worried about being away from my home in Vermont. I would be spending quite a lot of my summer in Tupper Lake, New York, approximately 2.5 hours away from my animals, friends, family, library, and everything else I loved. I'd grown up visiting every summer, and already knew the campus like the back of my hand, but this job connected me to The Wild Center even more. By the 3rd week in, I found myself back in Vermont for the weekend, and homesick for The Wild Center. Not only had this job introduced me to incredible new people and topics, but it had also created a bit of a home, and with home comes family.
The staff at The Wild Center were some of the nicest people I had ever met. Immediately after walking into our first training, I knew that I was joining a team, not just of Teen Educators, but of every staff member working there. Part of the program's goal is to help raise successful youth, and it focused a bit on making us all more independent. As important as independence is, so is being part of a team and having support from people around you. The Wild Center has managed to create the perfect combination of support and independence. It's a nice feeling to know that a team of people wants you to succeed and has your back. When I struggled with setting up a table, a summer intern was there to help teach me how. If I couldn't answer a question, I knew another staff member would have the answer. We were on our own for most of the day, but if something went wrong or we needed help, it was reassuring to know that we had support in every member of the staff.
While part of The Wild Center’s goal was to have teens out on the floor, interacting with people, and helping The Wild Center, it felt like the goal was also for us to be successful as people. The experience was heavily focused on reflecting, goals, and growth. We each had journals, and we were given prompts or encouraged to write whatever we wanted. At the beginning of the summer we had individual meetings to set goals, and to think about what we wanted to get out of this experience. It's amazing how much focus was on us, even though the overall goal was improving The Wild Center. This job helped me learn what I'm capable of, and it helped me realize that I can be a lot more independent than I thought. Being in such a supportive environment made it so much easier to take risks, and grow as a person. Not only did I learn a lot about myself, but I also learned a lot about the world around me.
For the first week of work, we went through multiple different lessons and trainings, varying from climate change to customer service. Learning didn't stop after that first week though, we were constantly trying new things and learning new facts. Education happened in a whole bunch of ways! Some mornings we hung out in Planet Adirondack, while Leanne and Michael gave us challenges to complete or things to research. We thought more about how climate change impacts us, by having a conversation and telling our stories to a group of 24 teachers interested in bringing climate change farther into their classrooms. One day we went stand up paddleboarding, which was a fun way to investigate more about what's living in the water. I'm not really a science person, but I found myself eagerly peering into a microscope to observe what's living in our pond water. We also had research time scattered into our week, a chance to research or work on anything we were interested in. Some teens chose to show their learning by giving a short formal presentation in Planet Adirondack, first researching a topic, then learning how to write a presentation, and finally presenting it to the public. Being a Teen Educator means that now I know more about so many different things, without feeling like I've sat through lectures. The Wild Center makes learning, along with many other things, really fun.
The job consisted of being out on the floor a lot, interacting with people at trunks (Activities, usually kept in trunks or boxes, to set up around The Wild Center), in Planet Adirondack, in the Naturalist’s Cabinet, and doing outdoor programs. The interactions I've had with visitors at these activities has been insanely powerful. Whether it's bug catching with a group of toddlers, or chatting for half an hour with a grandparent about climate change, every interaction is unique. It's very rewarding to have a child hug you after building a sand mountain, or to see someone's face light up after learning something new. Working with people of all different ages and backgrounds also taught me a lot. Before this job, young children scared me a bit, but after a summer of building sand landscapes with them, I now feel more comfortable than I ever have. Most evenings all the Teen Educators gathered together and talked about the amazing conversations and interactions that we had that day, because they were just that impactful.
Being a Teen Educator helped me grow a lot as a person. I made friends, made money, learned a lot, and got to have fun while doing it all. It was a life changing job in the best way. These experiences will help me in the rest of my life, and I am so grateful to The Wild Center for that. For anyone who's considering applying in the future, I say you absolutely should! You won't regret it. If there's one thing I learned, it's that some chances are worth taking. I'm not sure what opportunities are next for me, but being a Teen Educator at The Wild Center is an experience I will take with me, no matter where I go or what I choose to do with my life.
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