Zoo InternQuest is a career exploration program for high school students. For more information see the Zoo InternQuest Journals. For more photos see the Zoo InternQuest Photo Journal.

With a background in exotic animal training and management, experience working at more than three zoos, and an associate’s degree from Moorpark College, who wouldn’t hire the now permanent animal trainer, Donna Kent? The San Diego Zoo’s Wild Animal Park snapped up this remarkable person in a flash! Ms. Kent took us on a magnificent journey, introducing us to a variety of potential careers and to the animals that she works with on a daily basis.

Shannon Smith, Vicki Laurie, Kim LeMier, Janet Ramsay, and Jennifer Shields are all colleagues of Ms. Kent, and are all animal behaviorists. But each one has unique specialties and job duties under the broad “behaviorist” title. In certain cases, particular animals do not respond positively to individual trainers. For example, there is one animal that has an extreme distaste for Ms. Kent. Every time she is near, this animal reportedly wants to “bite her head off” (not literally of course, let’s just say they don’t click). So naturally, a different behaviorist takes charge of training and caring for that particular animal.

Jennifer Shields informed us that most of the trainers at the Park and the Zoo attended Moorpark College to obtain their degrees; but Ms. Shields actually took a different path. She was previously a classroom teacher, having completed both a bachelor’s and master’s degree, but later returned to school to receive her associate’s degree. It’s nice to know that there is more than one path to take to get to a job that you love. And Ms. Shields is a great example of the fact that you are allowed to change careers along the way. Maybe we all shouldn’t worry so much about what we want to be when we grow up.

Working in unison with the temperament of hyenas, the quills of porcupines, the splash of alligators, and the hoots of owls, the trainers at the San Diego Zoo’s Wild Animal Park are doing an amazing job!

Dana, Careers Team

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