“I do not know where to start. I ended up with this position by making the right choice at the right time. I changed my major orientation from people to animals and in doing that I went to our faculty member who had done research in animals and they told me about the opportunity. From the beginning, the zoo was extremely helpful in getting me in contact with people like the curator of animals at the zoo and getting me acclimated to the system that I would use to perform my behavioral observations. By far my favorite part was getting to work at the zoo all summer. My specific organism was the chimpanzees, who I watched for a little over 100 hours. In that time I learned about chimpanzee hierarchal structure, the relationships they form, the individual personalities they had, and so many more things. I enjoyed the experience so much that I extended my research into the Fall of 2019 and am still making the trip to conduct my research. I would not change a single thing about my experience. I learned a lot of tangible skills and learned a lot about myself. The internship helped me realize that I am heading into the right field. ”
