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Zoo InternQuest is a seven-week career exploration program for San Diego County high school juniors and seniors. Students have the unique opportunity to meet professionals working for the San Diego Zoo, Safari Park, and Institute for Conservation Research, learn about their jobs, and then blog about their experience online. Follow their adventure here on the Zoo’s website!
The Kenya Project has been an incredibly impactful initiative for many African species, including the reticulated giraffe. The giraffe species, often referred to as the forgotten megafauna by some, has declined as a whole at a drastic rate of 40% in the past 40 years. The reticulated giraffe, however, has declined at an even faster rate of 70% percent in the last 20 years. Taking their entire species from a somewhat secure number of 36,000 to a harrowing 9,000. Despite their shocking drop in numbers, there is very little attention directed toward them and the general public seems to be unaware of the situation. Thankfully, individuals involved with the Kenya Project have been working tirelessly for nearly three years to raise awareness and aid the species in any way possible. One such individual is Ms. Nicole Egna.
Ms. Egna has been involved in the program for just under two years, and actually started as a volunteer. In 2017, she completed her undergraduate studies in Marine Biology at the University of Southern California (USC), and was working as a substitute teacher when she decided to volunteer with the Institute for Conservation Research. She proceeded to aid the organization in her free time for just over three months, and shortly after was hired on as a contracted Research Assistant.
Ms. Egna believes one of the main factors that contributed to her securing the position was her extensive knowledge of the coding software R. R is an interface that processes large intercepts of data, and is commonly used as a large scale calculator and mapping tool. Ms. Egna actually had no intention of pursuing coding and happen stumbled across the concept in an ecology class at USC. Although ecology courses typically focus on the relationships between organisms and the environment, her professor surprisingly insisted on a focus in coding. After completing the course, Ms. Egna became quite interested in the topic and went on to land an internship where she developed her own coding project.
Ms. Egna now uses this information in her everyday work life at the Institute for Conservation Research. As previously mentioned, she works as a contracted research assistant which includes tasks such as data analysis, data set management, and working with an online data filtration program called Wild Watch Kenya. Ms. Egna mainly works digitally, but has had the phenomenal opportunity to visit Kenya twice this year in order to work on aspects related to Wild Watch Kenya.
In the future, she plans to go back to school to pursue her PhD and masters degree in wildlife conservation. In graduate school she plans to focus her thesis around an analysis of wildlife conservation data through computer based methods. Ms. Egna actually already has an incredible advantage as she has two years of related research under her belt. She also hopes to advance her job title at the Institute for Conservation Research, and eventually go from a contracted research assistant to a research coordinator.
I, personally, am very excited for her, and hope she achieves all her goals and ambitions. People like Ms. Egna are what keep all the remarkable programs running here at the San Diego Zoo.
Helena, Career Team
Week One, Fall Session 2018
The Kenya Project has been an incredibly impactful initiative for many African species, including the reticulated giraffe. The giraffe species, often referred to as the forgotten megafauna by some, has declined as a whole at a drastic rate of 40% in the past 40 years. The reticulated giraffe, however, has declined at an even faster rate of 70% percent in the last 20 years. Taking their entire species from a somewhat secure number of 36,000 to a harrowing 9,000. Despite their shocking drop in numbers, there is very little attention directed toward them and the general public seems to be unaware of the situation. Thankfully, individuals involved with the Kenya Project have been working tirelessly for nearly three years to raise awareness and aid the species in any way possible. One such individual is Ms. Nicole Egna.
Ms. Egna has been involved in the program for just under two years, and actually started as a volunteer. In 2017, she completed her undergraduate studies in Marine Biology at the University of Southern California (USC), and was working as a substitute teacher when she decided to volunteer with the Institute for Conservation Research. She proceeded to aid the organization in her free time for just over three months, and shortly after was hired on as a contracted Research Assistant.
Ms. Egna believes one of the main factors that contributed to her securing the position was her extensive knowledge of the coding software R. R is an interface that processes large intercepts of data, and is commonly used as a large scale calculator and mapping tool. Ms. Egna actually had no intention of pursuing coding and happen stumbled across the concept in an ecology class at USC. Although ecology courses typically focus on the relationships between organisms and the environment, her professor surprisingly insisted on a focus in coding. After completing the course, Ms. Egna became quite interested in the topic and went on to land an internship where she developed her own coding project.
Ms. Egna now uses this information in her everyday work life at the Institute for Conservation Research. As previously mentioned, she works as a contracted research assistant which includes tasks such as data analysis, data set management, and working with an online data filtration program called Wild Watch Kenya. Ms. Egna mainly works digitally, but has had the phenomenal opportunity to visit Kenya twice this year in order to work on aspects related to Wild Watch Kenya.
In the future, she plans to go back to school to pursue her PhD and masters degree in wildlife conservation. In graduate school she plans to focus her thesis around an analysis of wildlife conservation data through computer based methods. Ms. Egna actually already has an incredible advantage as she has two years of related research under her belt. She also hopes to advance her job title at the Institute for Conservation Research, and eventually go from a contracted research assistant to a research coordinator.
I, personally, am very excited for her, and hope she achieves all her goals and ambitions. People like Ms. Egna are what keep all the remarkable programs running here at the San Diego Zoo.
Helena, Career Team
Week One, Fall Session 2018 
