High School Internship 11th and 12th Grade

The Big Teen is wrapping up his high school education this Friday! Whew! What a great journey it has been. I am going to try to finish transferring our lesson plan books into a summary here over the next week. 

One of the most rewarding things about homeschooling high school was watching the big teen develop his own interests and have time to follow them. It is even greater when you can count special interests as school. He has always been an animal lover and our local nature center has been a wonderful environment for the Big Teen to explore his interests.

The Big Teen has volunteered at the nature center for 6 years now. At the beginning of his 11th grade year, his boss suggested he write up a request for a high school internship. They had college interns but had never had a high school intern. The Big Teen wrote up why he thought a high school internship would be important and it was granted. He became the first high school intern and has learned so much under this title. 

He has logged more than 800 hours at the nature center over the last two years alone. His interests led him to wildlife rehabilitation, and he has trained aside the staff at the nature center. In the past year, he helped hot glue the skin back onto baby rabbits, washed snakes, glued shells back together on hurt turtles, cared for many types of baby birds that had fallen from trees, cared for numerous squirrels, rabbits, opossums, and all other manner of wildlife that people brought into the nature center. 

He has also worked in the animal department, doing everything from cleaning cages to repairing animal habitats to basic care of the permanent animals. The Big Teen especially enjoyed babysitting the baby otter while it bonded to the adult otter. It was the Big Teen's job to break up the fights when things got out of hand. He also really enjoys working with the raccoons and Buzz, the vulture. Yes, my son thinks Buzz is cute! He also likes talking about helping with the bears and mountain lions. Mostly, he likes the big animals because it gives his Mama the willies. His real love is the reptile house, and he spends a great deal of his time there working with the public and teaching them about reptiles. 

Overall, this experience has taught the Big Teen so much. He would like to be hired by that nature center, and we hope that budget cuts will not get in the way of that. No matter what, he plans on staying with the nature center in one capacity or another for many years to come.

Here he is holding one of the many snakes at the nature center.




Aww -- a baby opossum!


Here the Big Teen is showing off the nature center's ground hog. They keep her back in the rehab area because she is not thrilled with crowds.

Blessings, Dawn