Since its inception in the early 1990s, Reid Park Zoo’s teen volunteer program has been instrumental in developing young conservationists.
Now known as Zoo Crew, this program offers youth ages 13-18 the chance to educate guests about animals from around the globe while also promoting the Zoo’s conservation messages to inspire guests to take action to protect wild animals and wild places.
Upon being accepted into the program, teens undergo extensive training and receive continuous mentoring throughout their service. To give them insights into potential careers in conservation, Volunteer Coordinator, Aimee Alvira, organizes field trips that provide hands-on experience working alongside volunteers and staff from local community conservation projects.
We have been honored to remain in contact with many past teen volunteers. Here is a small snapshot of the impact that being a teen volunteer at Reid Park Zoo Zoo had in shaping their careers in conservation.
If you were a past teen volunteer that went into the field of conservation, we’d love to hear from you and include you in the blog post. Please email jennifers@reidparkzoo.org to share your story.
Learn more about the Zoo Crew program.
Dr. Anna Young
Teen Volunteer from 1995-1998
Current role: Vice President of Learning and Impact at The Living Desert Zoo and Gardens
Notable accomplishments:
- Zookeeper at The Phoenix Zoo
- Ph.D. in Biology, concentration: Animal Behavior
- Given over 60 conference presentations
- Published 14 scientific journal articles
- Tenured professor at Otterbein University, developed and directed the Zoo and Conservation Science Program
- Engaged in field work in South Africa and co-wrote a conservation action plan for the Cape Parrot
- Served on the AZA Wildlife Conservation Committee for 6 years as a member and 2 as an advisor (still active as an advisor!)
- Recently honored by the California State Senate and Assembly for conservation and education work at The Living Desert. This includes creating World Desert Day to recognize and celebrate deserts as unique and important ecosystems, which is now established as an official day in California!
Meagan Bethel
Teen Volunteer from 2010-2013
I was a teen volunteer from 2010-2013 and enjoyed most seeing the inner workings of a Zoo. Additionally I loved that I was able to spend more time watching the behaviors of the animals there. While I did not pursue a career in Zoology, I am now a wildlife biologist at Sky Island Alliance, a bi-national non-profit protecting the life, lands, and water of this region. I work with wildlife cameras and process the photo data, and I still love watching the behaviors of animals that couldn’t be seen if humans were present.
Hope Stancliffe
Teen Volunteer from 2012-2016
I was a teen volunteer from May 2012 to May 2016. Currently I am an aviculturist at the National Aviary. During my time as a teen volunteer I had many wonderful experiences that really started me on my path as a keeper. I learned so much, not only about the animals themselves but also about organization, public speaking, and conservation.
Jessie Class
Teen Volunteer from 2015-2019
My name is Jessie Class, I am an Education Specialist at Reid Park Zoo. I first began my journey as a Teen Volunteer when I was 15 years old. That was 10 years ago. I have always loved animals and volunteering was a great way to start exploring that passion. I loved sharing with guests, friends, and family everything that I learned. I even used what I learned for projects in school. I loved the zoo so much that I went on to become an Educator, which I have been doing for 8 years now. I love inspiring children the same way that I was inspired. There are children that I taught in summer camps that are now Teen Volunteers themselves. It truly gives me a sense of fulfilment and joy to build those connections between people and animals.
Noah Fleisher
Teen Volunteer from 2019-2021
What I enjoyed most about being part of the Zoo Crew program was being able to engage with zoo visitors to interpret about the animals and their ecology. Now I’m at the University of Arizona studying Ecology & Evolutionary Biology and Marine Science. I’m also the Vice President for the UA’s Marine Awareness & Conservation Society, which is a student group focused on public outreach about ocean ecology and conservation. I’m planning to go to grad school to continue studying ecology and wildlife science.
Shaela Patel
Teen volunteer from 2019-2023
Being a Zoo Crew Volunteer was my first volunteer experience, and it did indeed shape who I am. When I first started, I was a nervous thirteen year old who was just excited to have gotten accepted into the program….I grew tremendously because of that program. I was able to learn and practice my public speaking skills, and now I am confident enough to present in front of groups of 500+ people on my own (something I did multiple times last semester!).
This volunteer position was one of my first experiences working in a team and being a leader/mentor for other volunteers. This leadership experience was one of the things I mentioned in my application for the Next Generation Service Corps (NGSC), which is a scholarship leadership program at ASU. NGSC is currently paying my tuition.
Also, the fact that [Volunteer Coordinators] Sierra and Aimee entrusted me and my fellow volunteers with educating guests or taking out education animals was a huge privilege and confidence booster for not only me, but I suspect others as well. It made me feel like as a young person I could make a difference in someone’s life just on my own, and it also gave me the confidence to apply for a job in the Education Department! As for content, I learned so much about animals through the Zoo Crew that it only made me love them more, and it was surely one of the driving factors in choosing my major at ASU. Before the zoo, I knew I wanted to work with animals, but now I am keen on working with exotics or wildlife, which I fully credit to the material I learned in the Zoo Crew program. I am majoring in Conservation Biology and Ecology at Arizona State University, and there is a lot of information in my ecology-centered classes that is basically review because I already had the opportunity to learn about it from the Zoo. Most people at ASU, when I tell them my major, they don’t know what conservation really means, so I have to follow it up with “it’s like nature science.” I am lucky that because of the Zoo, conservation was already firmly in my vocabulary, and I went into college knowing my exact goal of heading back to a zoo or to working with wild animals in my future.
Savannah Repscher
Teen volunteer from 2022-2023
My experience as a Zoo Crew Volunteer sparked my passion for conservation. I have had such an incredible opportunity to learn about wildlife and the important roles they play in their habitats. During every volunteer shift, I had the pleasure of speaking with community members of all ages and connecting them to the conservation efforts at Reid Park Zoo. I especially enjoyed engaging with young learners using model skulls or other tactile articles, like hair or fur. Being a teen volunteer led me to become a strong public speaker, an advocate for conservation, and someone who can connect with others about my love for animals. With these skills as a volunteer, I had the opportunity to join the education staff at RPZ in 2023 and lead summer camps and school programs.
Currently, I work with the Sonoran Desert Network, an inventory and monitoring section of the National Park Service. I help with the wildlife protocol, deploying wildlife cameras in national parks here in Arizona. I also assist with photo identification of animals from our cameras, where that data is analyzed and used for natural resource management to better understand populations and biodiversity in the park. I am so grateful for my time at Reid Park Zoo for giving me the ability to be successful early in my dream career.
Averie Mills
Teen Volunteer from 2019- 2023
I first started volunteering at Reid Park Zoo during my freshman year of high school after my parents encouraged my sisters and me to find an activity outside of school. At the time, I had a small appreciation for nature, so when I saw that Reid Park Zoo had a volunteer opportunity for teens, I decided to apply as a Zoo Crew member. I had no idea that this single decision would completely alter my life goals and change my entire career pathway in the best way possible. I found that I enjoyed being around wildlife and speaking to the public about the importance of wildlife conservation to help support Reid Park’s mission: to inspire memories and connect people, ensuring the protection of wild animals and wild places. The overall experience transformed me from someone with a small appreciation for nature to someone with an incredible passion for protecting wildlife and biodiversity. I remember being trained to incorporate international projects that Reid Park Zoo helps fund into our public speaking, and this immediately sparked my interest in wildlife research and management.
Today, I am an undergraduate student at the University of Missouri – Columbia, majoring in Natural Resource Science & Management with an emphasis in Fisheries & Wildlife. I am also minoring in Biology and Captive Wildlife Management, with a certificate in Geographical Information Systems (GIS). I’m an executive member for a student chapter of the Wildlife Society. This is an international non-profit association whose mission is to empower wildlife professionals to advance conservation through science, community, and professional excellence. We are currently working on a project with the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) that involves game cameras and helping their wildlife biologist record and monitor populations in conservation areas. We are also working on a new project with MDC that will allow us to test and find easier ways to record and monitor weasel populations. This is incredibly important as many weasels such as the Long-tailed Weasels are listed as vulnerable and considered a conservation concern. My volunteer experience at Reid Park Zoo has helped me gain numerous life and career-related skills, opening up many opportunities, including internships. One such opportunity was Reid Park Zoo’s Animal Care Internship Program, where I worked with their amazing and dedicated Elephant Care Team, who taught me so much. I am incredibly grateful for what Reid Park Zoo and their staff have done for me, and I would recommend and encourage anyone with an interest in nature to join their teen or docent volunteer programs!