My Workplace Learning Experience this year was filled with excitement, laughter and joy. My previous internship was quite different from this year’s due to their complete opposition. In my previous occupation, I was a teacher for South of Market Child Care. For this internship my job was to observe children and teach them important information in life, such as the alphabet and counting numbers. This year I was able to commit to doing volunteer work at the Animal Resource Center, also known as the ARC located in the San Francisco Zoo. My unpaid internship there has given me an insight of the rules of the working world, the differences between my school work versus my internship work and the affect of this internship on the kind of work I want to do in the future.
My Workplace Learning Experience at the Animal Resource Center has taught me rules about the working world. These rules are to be punctual and efficient and to be courteous. The rule of punctuality is basically to arrive to work on time. Arriving late throws off staff members because they do not know if a person is coming or not. So when they assign areas to people, they have no clue when people will come in. So sometimes we had one person per each station that got out of hand and made the day a little less efficient and less productive. Where as in my previous internship we always had at the very least two teachers in every room. This was comforting for me to know that there was someone there to help me should I need it.
Efficiency is the key in all aspects of a job. When I was volunteering at the ARC the staff and volunteers were efficient on what products to use and were environmentally friendly. The staff members also showed great efficiency when doing their job by finishing their job right away. I once worked with a man named Al who would finish the job super fast! When paired with him he would just breeze through mopping up animal pens and cells so that he can take a long lunch break to let them dry quickly and have an easier time for the second half of the day.
Courtesy is also an important factor in the working world. During my internship everyone was kind and helpful towards me. They would answer my questions, teach me how to do things and tell me their secret tips to make the job go smoother. Like when I was paired with a woman named Martha in the ARC. She was very kind to me even when I messed up. One time I did not put the food dish next to an Opossum, and Martha kindly and calmly told me that I was supposed to put it in front of the Opossum. So I did and I learned my lesson without being scared off or getting into too much trouble. In return for their courtesy, I acted courteous as well which made the workday move smoothly and enjoyable.
Although school is similar to my internship in some ways I quickly realized that I enjoyed working at the ARC far more than staying in school. One major difference I noticed was that at the ARC I was able to move around, stand up and it was much more active work than school. Where as in school I tend to lose my attention to the teacher or work because of not being able to have a change in scenery for over an hour and a half. The freedom of the ARC was also a major factor in the work. When I am tired from running around and maintaining the pens or taking animal diets I can take a break get something to drink and return to my work. But in school you can not take a break and you must force yourself to try to focus on the work. Another great difference would be how the ARC learning experience is different from school work. When you learn at the ARC everything feels concrete. They can tell and show people what an animal is capable of, what defenses it has and what it looks like. But at school everything feels abstract in a classroom, like a religion. There are certain rules to follow, things you have to do and hopefully and luckily in the end you reach salvation. These are the main differences of the ARC and CAT. The ARC feels much more real as they can show people an animal’s defense mechanism, what and how it eats, how it feels and how to handle such beasts. Versus school revolving around scribbling on a piece of paper or banging on a keyboard wishing there were more to see than just words.
In my previous internship I was pretty much chained down to a room with a whole lot of kids and I was very busy trying to entertain and deal with kids. This was difficult and tiring and quite hectic due to the kids being hyper and unwilling to cooperate, which was aggravating. If it was nap time they would not want to sleep and would argue, complain and wear my patience thin! Or if it was play time, they would not want to share what so ever. I would propose taking turns with the toy or playing together, but they would not want to comply and caused me to take away the toy that was causing the problem. As such, the South of Market Childcare Center was chaotic compared to the free flowing Animal Resource Center.
This experience has opened my mind into moving into a more visually stimulating field. Sitting in class all day and learning something only to forget it a week later is a trend that I can not cope with for the rest of my life. Although I do not see myself in a field that involves me capturing animals and cleaning and caring for them my whole life, I think that I would like an active job that would allow me to move around and take my mind off of things with the views of the world.
This WLE experience has taught me much about the working world and a lot more about myself. It has taught me the rules of courtesy and efficiency in the workplace, which are two of the most important rules. I have also learned that I am a visual learner and that I learn better when I see something and can actively hold and play with the object to gain experience and learn. Yet, compared to my previous internship it taught me that dealing with animals is a lot easier than dealing with children. Although with animals it is difficult to know what they are thinking or communicate mutually, it is possible to predict what they will do in a situation. For example, every single time I would bring food into one rabbit’s enclosure, the rabbit would run away from me. But once I left the enclosure, it would hop out to the food and begin eating the same food it has been eating for probably years. But with children it is a completely different story. When I was serving children breakfast one day some would say, “I love cereal!” But the next time I work and give them cereal they would refuse to eat it and would want to eat something else. Another difference would be from when I received my volunteer badge for the Zoo WLE. Upon my first day of training at the ARC I was given a badge that had the power to bestow me with free drinks and a 10% discount on my purchases! It also let me feel powerful because I had a badge on that stated I was part of the ARC and people can come to me for information. But at SOMACC (South Of MArket Child Care), I did not receive a special badge that made me feel special. But what I did receive was the hugs of children and their toothless grins. These experiences have given me an understanding of what direction I should take in life. I would not like a job dealing with children or a job that requires me to deal with clients and people continuously throughout the day. I have learned this through my experience at SOMACC, as dealing with children is not one of my strong points. My experience at the ARC is one that showed that I would like a job that has a lot of freedom and of low stress that was also quite active and required me to physically engage in objectives.