Volunteer Work

Volunteered in 2015 during my IB Project Week for 3 days at Wildlife at Risk, a non-profit organization in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. I worked to treat and feed animals such as Sun bears, monkeys, gibbons, otters, and administer medicine to reptiles and birds. I also got to paint and infrastructure in the rescue centre! I learned a lot about illegal animal trade in Vietnam, but thankfully there are some great people working to solve the problem. I also learned that baby sun bears are really friendly, and also have really sharp claws.

Volunteered for 2 months during my GAP year in 2016, with African Impact in conservation and preservation of the Big 5.
Responsibilities included: Tracking illegal poacher's locations with ProTrak, disabling medium-large snare traps, digging water holes, eliminating invasive alien species (plants, but actual aliens would be cool), lion and leopard tagging, health analysis and tracking, reptile & bird sanctuary cleaning and releases, feeding reptiles, capturing data for WWF, teaching local village children to read during English lesson, painting school classroom, entering research into databases. Slept with the hyenas and lions on weekly overnight bush camp expeditions.

I wanted to dedicate a page in my portfolio to something I've been passionate about since I was young, which is wildlife rescue and conservation. I believe that it's important we help those who can't help themselves, and for me my heart is dedicated to helping animals in need.

In the fall of 2016 I embarked on a trip to South Africa for over a month, where I worked with African Impact and the WWF to track, monitor, and research the Big 5 species (Lions, Buffalos, Rhinos, Elephants, Leopards).

The work we did was helpful in monitoring their health and welfare, as well as creating more watering holes to combat the drought. Some other experiences I had was working in a wildlife sanctuary, being charged at by an elephant, having my shoes nibbled on by hyenas, chased by an ostrich, releasing a black mamba, tracking poachers through visual tracking with the ProTrack conservation team, and taking down snare traps.

I hope to one day be on a team that creates documentaries and non-fiction programming on wildlife and animal welfare in order to raise awareness and hope for all our endangered habitats and species.

If you have the time, please click below to check out some

awesome organizations that do exactly this.

African Impact

Cheetah Rescue

Anti-Poaching ProTrack

Southeast Asian Illegal Trade