I would 100% do it again. The day I left my placement I was already planning about when I could go back, that's how much I love the people and all the animals I got to work with there. It was an experience that I just knew nowhere else would be able to give me.

I did my 40 weeks work placement in Ontario, Canada, with a nonprofit organization called Aspen Valley Wildlife Sanctuary. Here my role was basically called an 'animal rehab specialist' and I worked with about a thousand animals throughout the whole year, from squirrels to raccoons to animals as big as moose and wolves and bears. My role was basically to rehab them from their injuries, or if orphaned, up until they can be released back into the wild.

During the baby seasons the hours can get really really long, I think think I was working maybe 80 hours a week at some stages and working 16 hour days, but I never felt it was like that because I loved the work I would do. It never dragged out and there was always something to do and it was always rewarding - I absolutely loved my placement, like it was the best year I could have imagined for.

 

What were some practical things you had to consider?

So before going abroad, it was made so much easier by Dionne Alexander. She was the coordinator for Queens for Zoology and Marine and she was able to send me a lot of the links for potential funding. Because my placement was voluntary, I didn't receive any money from my actual organisation, so I was able to get such scholarships like Sir Thomas Dixon Scholarship, bursaries and Turing Grants. Just through Dionne, she was able to forward me the links and help me get set up for them.

Also the volunteer coordinator at Aspen Valley, Wendy, she was able to help me with getting like the mandatory rabies vaccine, the visa for getting into the country, and a lot of the stuff that from the outside, you wouldn't understand.

And then there was a girl called Erica who was also a queen student who went a couple of years before me. I was able to ask her kind of what to expect. So I was able to buy stuff like clothes, know what the seasons would be like and stuff like that.

So all three of them combined and it's so much easier for preparing for Aspen.

 

Did anything surprise you?

The surprise was just in terms of the different culture at Aspen and the different culture in the different country. Like I've never been somewhere where people are so willing to help, like traveling 4 hours to drop animals off or phoning from Toronto all the way up to where we were up in the far north.

The surprise as well was the weather. I was experiencing minus 30 degree winters and then a couple of months later plus 30 degree summers. It was quite a switch going from seeing people in massive coats to then a t-shirt and shorts a couple months later.

 

 

Were there any challenges?

So Aspen is a 980 Hector site and because of the amount of animals we get in a year, we need a really, really big facility, so it's kind of in the wilderness almost. So you can kind of feel a bit of an isolation happens because you're so far away from everybody, you just may feel a bit disconnected. Although I had so much help from like my family and friends I met there that it never really affected me too much. I've always kind of been like a really outgoing, practical person so I could always think of something to do. I was also supported by Queens who would always regularly check up on me and make sure my placement was going well. So although I could have felt isolated, it never let it get to me.

 

Do you have any advice?

Just go abroad. Go abroad and go international for your placement. This is such a great opportunity you can get at such a young age with like financial backing so you're always kind of supported. Yeah I would just say go away and just experience a different culture and challenge yourself!

 

Paul Sheehy

BSc Zoology