What's the best way to draw a crowd?
This age-old question was the research topic at hand this summer for Isabel Merriman Velez, a STEM Emerging Leaders Fellows (SELF) student who interned this summer at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.
The second-year zoology major spent several months gathering data on how well attended wildlife programs at the Cleveland museum were, comparing crowds for pre-announced programs, time periods when a zookeeper was present, and times when no staff members were around. The results showed not much difference between the formal program and when a uniformed zookeeper was present to answer questions, but a big dropoff in interest when no staffers were present.
"The research shows there is value in side time that keepers spend at exhibits informally," Velez said. "A lot of keepers enjoy education, but it does also take time away from animal care."
Along with her research, Velez also took part in cleaning, feeding, and training the live wildlife on display at the museum. Both mammals and birds native to Ohio are exhibited at the museum including foxes, coyotes, otters, opossums, bobcats as well as owls and bald eagles. The months spent in a classic zookeeper role only strengthened Velez's desire to enter the field.
"The thing that makes me the happiest is being a zookeeper, and doing the training with the animals and enriching their lives while helping the public learn about them," Velez said. "There's nothing that really gets me going like that."
Velez's summer research experience was just one aspect of the SELF scholars program housed in the Office of Diversity and Inclusion. The program is aimed at cultivating the next generation of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) leaders by strengthening pipelines through and into careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics for students who have experience living or working in diverse environments or who have overcome substantial educational challenges.
While Velez said she loved all of the behind-the-scenes work with the animals, there was one animal she worked with that stole her heart. "There was a red-tailed hawk that had a wing injury," she said. "I really enjoyed getting to know him, holding him on a glove, and helping him recover."