There is nothing like a cheerful, noisy greeting from an attention-seeking spider monkey to chase away the blues on the way to your office each morning.
"Good morning handsome," I always reply, resisting the temptation to reach across the barrier and shake Ike's eagerly-offered but rather grubby fingers that are stretched at arm's length in my direction. (Afterall, monkeys do have questionable personal hygiene standards.) My office is in the Isle of Wight Zoo and I am fortunate enough to be the education and conservation officer here.
Just a few years ago, though, I would never have believed that I could have such an interesting and rewarding career.
I left school at the age of 16 with some good O Levels but no real aspirations. However, when my daughters started school I started to become interested in education. I regularly went along to their primary school to help with practical activities in the classroom. Before long I became a midday supervisor (aka dinner lady) and later a classroom assistant. One of the teachers with whom I worked recognised my interest in education and suggested that I train to become a teacher.
I confess that it took me more than two years to summon up the courage to enrol with the Open University, uncertain as to whether or not I had the academic ability to work at degree level. But, on the course, my confidence soon grew thanks to my patient tutors who provided expert support.
As a child I had always been fascinated by the natural world — which made it easy for me to select a course in natural sciences — and it was wonderful to be able to study the subject in depth. Five years later I graduated in natural sciences with biology and then trained at University of Southampton to become a teacher, specialising in primary science. I was fortunate to gain a teaching post in the primary school that my children had attended, and where I had been classroom assistant.
During my fourth year teaching I successfully applied for an Environmental Educator Award — an opportunity for educators and secondary school teachers of science and geography to apply to join one of three scientific research expeditions during the summer holiday period — with the conservation charity Earthwatch. That August I joined the research vessel Silurian as a field assistant, collecting data on whales, dolphins and porpoises in the Hebrides. In this most stunning of locations I was doing real, meaningful science, documenting sightings of cetaceans and other marine life. I saw my first puffin, marvelled at enormous basking sharks and enjoyed the exhilaration of dolphins bow-riding our vessel.
By the end of the placement, I had decided that I wanted to work full-time outside the classroom, enthusing children for nature and teaching them about wildlife and conservation. Just a few weeks later I heard about and applied for a vacancy for the post of education officer at a small independent zoo on the Isle of Wight. It would mean longer hours, much less holiday and quite a big drop in salary. It would also mean that my resources would include lions, tigers, jaguars and lemurs. Naturally, when offered, I took the job.
Since then no two days have been the same. A large part of my everyday role involves leading teaching sessions for groups of schoolchildren, but I may also find myself asked to take photographs to document the veterinary treatment of a tiger, to create environmental enrichment for monkeys, to feed lemurs, to give media interviews and to clean the toilets. It is this unpredictability that makes my job so enjoyable.
Education is still an enormous part of my life. I use the knowledge, understanding and skills gained during my degree and my teacher-training every day to teach young people, some of whom may be the conservationists of tomorrow, about the natural world. I am currently undertaking a part-time MA(Ed) with conservation education as the subject for my dissertation. As well as managing the education department at the IOW Zoo, I am now responsible for overseeing our conservation projects and for co-ordinating our research. I have also recently become involved with the zoo's animal training programme, training tigers to present their paws so that the vet can examine their pads and claws in a completely non-invasive way.
Who would have guessed when I was a dinner lady in a primary school that I would end up here?
That I would be sent to India to film wild tigers for the television series Tiger Island? That hand-reared baby lemurs would be scampering around my spare room waiting to be bottle fed? Or that a fully-grown male Indian tiger would be offering his gigantic paw and practically eating out of my hand? I am just so glad that I took that first step of enrolling for a degree. University study was the key that unlocked a whole future of opportunity. If you are considering dipping your toe into higher education I would encourage you to give it a go. Study something that really interests you and be prepared to take advantage of opportunities that come your way. You can't have my job though — I love it too much.
Find out more about Universities Week here.
