SF Unscripted - The Santa Fe College Teaching Zoo with Jon Miot and Donna Everham

Did you know that Santa Fe College has a teaching zoo? In this episode, hear directly from Jon Minot, director and professor, and Donna Everham, assistant professor, zoo animal technology. Visit the zoo's website at sfcollege.edu/zoo.  

Transcript

Welcome to Santa Fe Unscripted, the podcast that brings you the behind-the-scenes

stories of Santa Fe College.

00:00:11 Mark Barley

I'm your host, Mark Barley.

00:00:13 Mark Barley

Let's dive in.

00:00:14 Mark Barley

All right, I'm pleased to be joined by John Miot.

00:00:19 Mark Barley

Let me get your title.

00:00:21 Mark Barley

I thought we had the longest title ever in our first podcast, but I think you have now

surpassed that.

00:00:28 Mark Barley

Chair of Zoo Animal Technology and Director of the Santa Fe College Teaching Zoo.

00:00:34 Mark Barley

and Donna Everham, general curator and assistant professor at the Teaching Zoo.

00:00:41 Mark Barley

Welcome in.

00:00:41 Mark Barley

Thank you.

00:00:42 Mark Barley

Happy to be here.00:00:42 Mark Barley

Appreciate it.

00:00:43 Mark Barley

Yeah.

00:00:44 Mark Barley

So to start off, John, tell us about your experience here at the college.

00:00:50 Mark Barley

How long you've been here?

00:00:51 Mark Barley

What brought you to Santa Fe and why zoos?

00:00:56 Jon Miot

Lots of great questions.

00:00:57 Jon Miot

So I started here in 2008, so I've been here for 18 years.

00:01:03 Jon Miot

And

00:01:04 Jon Miot

I came down here, I worked in the zoo industry for many years, and a position opened up

here as assistant director and assistant professor.

00:01:14 Jon Miot

So I came down because I really wanted to give to the next generation.

00:01:18 Jon Miot

I wanted to teach and inspire the next generation of zookeepers, and this job, absolutely I

could see that as a way to do that perfectly.

00:01:27 Jon Miot

So I took that position, and then the zoo director retired a year later, and so then I was00:01:32 Jon Miot

promoted to zoo director.

00:01:34 Jon Miot

So it's been an amazing ride, an amazing time, and I just, I love what I do, and it's because I

get to do so many different things.

00:01:41 Jon Miot

So I help manage this program that's extremely unique, the Zoo Animal Technology

Program, and I also manage a zoo, which is also unique because we're the only accredited

zoo on a college campus.

00:01:52 Jon Miot

So we do amazing things on a daily basis, and it's a lot of fun to be a part of it.

00:01:57 Mark Barley

So where did you come from?

00:01:58 Mark Barley

You said you came down here, so where did you come from?

00:02:02 Jon Miot

Most recently I was in Chicago at Lincoln Park Zoo.

00:02:06 Mark Barley

Okay.

00:02:06 Jon Miot

And so I worked primarily with the carnivores there, so all the different cats as well as

bears, but I had done work with hoofed animals before that.

00:02:15 Jon Miot

We call them hoofstock.

00:02:16 Jon Miot

So we'll think antelope and zebra gazelle.

00:02:19 Jon MiotAnd before that I was at Zoo Atlanta in Atlanta, Georgia.

00:02:24 Jon Miot

Before that I was at Busch Gardens in Tampa, Florida.

00:02:27 Jon Miot

Before that I was at Zoo New England in Boston, Massachusetts.

00:02:32 Jon Miot

So a good little, it was a good little trail.

00:02:35 Jon Miot

And it was a lot of fun.

00:02:36 Jon Miot

I worked at lots of different institutions, big institutions, non-profit, for-profit.

00:02:41 Jon Miot

And I got a great perspective on the industry and how the industry works and how people

care for animals in different ways.

00:02:50 Jon Miot

And I was able to bring that knowledge down here.

00:02:51 Jon Miot

And that's how I approach working here is training these animal care professionals in a way

that

00:02:58 Jon Miot

I know they are doing out in the world.

00:03:01 Jon Miot

This is how they do this in the world.

00:03:02 Jon Miot

These are the things that are actually important in the world.

00:03:05 Mark BarleyYeah, it's interesting.

00:03:07 Mark Barley

animal care professional, that's the first time I've heard that term.

00:03:10 Mark Barley

And so I, rather than students, right?

00:03:13 Mark Barley

So that's really cool.

00:03:14 Mark Barley

Donna, tell us a little about you.

00:03:17 Donna Everham

So I've only been here for three years, and this was a coming home for me.

00:03:21 Donna Everham

I graduated from this program in 1992.

00:03:26 Donna Everham

Wow.

00:03:27 Donna Everham

wow, a long time ago.

00:03:33 Donna Everham

1992 and had a pretty successful career.

00:03:39 Donna Everham

And unusual for our current industry where I only, not only, I have my associates, so I don't

have a bachelor's.

00:03:47 Donna Everham

So I was able, with the experience from the program and just learning that you got to work

hard and be kind and be a good team player, to have a lot of really great experiences.

00:03:57 Donna EverhamAnd it was always my plan to find a way to come back here, sort of like what John said, to

make sure our next generation of animal care professionals

00:04:05 Donna Everham

are ready to go, which is what we do every day here.

00:04:08 Mark Barley

Yeah, it's every day.

00:04:10 Mark Barley

I can attest to that.

00:04:11 Donna Everham

Every day.

00:04:12 Mark Barley

Where'd you come from?

00:04:14 Mark Barley

Give us a brief synopsis of kind of like John touched on 18 different things.

00:04:20 Mark Barley

Where did you spend time?

00:04:21 Donna Everham

I'll start from the beginning.

00:04:22 Donna Everham

1992, I graduated.

00:04:24 Donna Everham

Got my first job here locally at a facility called Luby Foundation that right now and always

has focused on, focuses on bats, but back then it was a large primate collection.

00:04:34 Donna Everham

We had hood stock.

00:04:35 Donna Everhambrown deer like species.

00:04:37 Donna Everham

So I did that.

00:04:37 Donna Everham

Then I went to Jacksonville Zoo, did bird curator, some animal welfare work.

00:04:43 Donna Everham

And then, where did I go?

00:04:46 Donna Everham

Then, oh, then I went to a little place down south and was on the opening team for Disney's

Animal Kingdom Park and that whole safari and

00:04:57 Donna Everham

That was a lot of very cool experiences.

00:04:59 Donna Everham

And then from there, I became a manager.

00:05:02 Donna Everham

So my first leadership role, opening Animal Kingdom Lodge.

00:05:05 Donna Everham

So if you haven't been to that resort, it is like my heart place after, well, probably before

Santa Fe, but yeah, because it's a jewel.

00:05:14 Donna Everham

And then I worked at a small zoo in Delaware called Brandywine Zoo, where I was assistant

curator, then became curator of carnivores and ungulates, brown deer-like, think rhino,

giraffe, hippo, at Philadelphia Zoo.

00:05:27 Donna Everham

And then took two years off to figure out what I wanted to do, and then this opportunity

came available.

00:05:33 Mark BarleyIs that like John calls you up and he's like, hey, Donna?

00:05:36 Mark Barley

I got these primates.

00:05:37 Mark Barley

I need you to.

00:05:38 Donna Everham

No, I didn't know, John.

00:05:39 Donna Everham

I didn't know.

00:05:40 Donna Everham

No, our industry is very small.

00:05:41 Donna Everham

It is small.

00:05:42 Donna Everham

Yeah.

00:05:43 Donna Everham

In fact, he and I were talking probably 8 years ago, seven years ago, there was a position

that came up that was adjunct, I think.

00:05:51 Donna Everham

And you know, I had said to, I've been married for 32 years and my husband knew I sort of

wanted to come back here.

00:05:55 Donna Everham

And I was like, hey, this adjunct gig and it's Santa Fe.

00:05:58 Donna Everham

And he was like, okay.

00:06:00 Donna EverhamSo I apply.

00:06:01 Donna Everham

And then

00:06:01 Donna Everham

John communicated to me like, hey, just so this is what this is.

00:06:05 Donna Everham

And I was like, maybe not.

00:06:07 Donna Everham

probably not the stuff I'm looking for.

00:06:09 Donna Everham

So then when this came up, it was a really good fit for me.

00:06:12 Donna Everham

Yeah, it's a great place to, it's a great place to be.

00:06:15 Donna Everham

This program is phenomenal.

00:06:17 Mark Barley

And you know, I go everywhere and I tell people, hey, I work for, work at Santa Fe.

00:06:22 Mark Barley

They're like, oh, that's the place for the zoo.

00:06:24 Mark Barley

And I'm like, yeah, it's really cool.

00:06:25 Mark Barley

It's a really cool, unique thing.

00:06:27 Mark Barley

And we'll have time to talk about it.

00:06:31 Mark BarleyBut John, tell us a little bit about the history of the zoo.

00:06:34 Mark Barley

Dating back, I mean, what, 50 years now?

00:06:36 Jon Miot

More.

00:06:37 Mark Barley

Yeah, right.

00:06:38 Mark Barley

And so how, like, tell us how the zoo kind of got started here at Santa Fe and, you know,

how you've seen it grow.

00:06:47 Jon Miot

So it started in 1970 and it started as a program to train zookeepers.

00:06:54 Jon Miot

And that was Dr.

00:06:56 Jon Miot

Ray Geron.

00:06:57 Jon Miot

He is the one who

00:06:59 Jon Miot

had this idea that if we had an established program to train zoo professionals, we could

train them at a higher caliber and then they could be more productive for the zoos.

00:07:09 Jon Miot

So he actually traveled the country 1st and spoke with zoo directors, spoke with curators

to see, is this something you would need and what would you want them, what would you

want these zookeepers to do?

00:07:21 Jon Miot

And in that process,00:07:23 Jon Miot

developed the idea of having the zoo on grounds as well.

00:07:27 Jon Miot

There are other zookeeping programs in the country and the world, but none of them have

their own accredited facility on ground.

00:07:35 Jon Miot

I'll talk a little about that in a second.

00:07:37 Jon Miot

But so he developed this idea of having a facility on grounds, the zoo itself, the training

grounds here at the college.

00:07:44 Jon Miot

Originally it started across town

00:07:48 Jon Miot

at a different site because Northwest Campus wasn't really established yet.

00:07:51 Jon Miot

But 1974, we moved here, or they moved the zoo here on grounds on the Northwest

Campus.

00:07:59 Jon Miot

It's about a 10 acre spot in the woods and they developed the trails and started acquiring

animals.

00:08:05 Jon Miot

And then since then, it's just, it has grown.

00:08:07 Jon Miot

And so again, it is a training facility, but it's also open to the public and it's open to the

public because zookeepers and animal care professionals need to educate the public.

00:08:16 Jon Miot

We need, that is part of what they do.00:08:18 Jon Miot

Without having the public there, they're actually not fulfilling their mission and we're not

fulfilling our mission.

00:08:23 Jon Miot

And so it grew over time to expand to different types of animals a more

00:08:28 Jon Miot

It was always, the idea was always exotic animals, but they started with essentially pets,

like exotic pets that were cast offs, which is fine from the perspective of giving students

training opportunities because you're working with an exotic animal, but not the way,

again, that an actual zoo in the industry would work.

00:08:45 Jon Miot

So zoos in the industry don't have exotic pets as their animals that they show to the public.

00:08:52 Jon Miot

They're actually

00:08:55 Jon Miot

well-designed animal populations.

00:08:57 Jon Miot

So from the perspective of you come to our zoo, you see gibbons, that group of gibbons is

part of the collective of gibbons in the United States, all one breeding population.

00:09:08 Jon Miot

So that is when zoos need animals, they don't go to the wild to get animals.

00:09:12 Jon Miot

That is absolutely contrary to our missions.

00:09:15 Jon Miot

What they do is they work with other facilities to determine how do we breed these animals

and where do they go afterwards.

00:09:21 Jon Miot

And that's kind of like the short and sweet version of that.00:09:23 Jon Miot

But so our zoo

00:09:25 Jon Miot

try to evolve into that model as well.

00:09:27 Jon Miot

Because if we're going to be taken seriously and the zookeepers are going to learn what

they need to learn, then we have to function as every other zoo.

00:09:36 Jon Miot

And that's where, again, we decided, we've been accredited by the Association of Zoos and

Aquariums for over 25 years.

00:09:43 Jon Miot

We are going through re-accreditation or accreditation right now.

00:09:46 Jon Miot

And so we have to meet the same standards as Disney's Animal Kingdom.

00:09:52 Jon Miot

They're also accredited.

00:09:53 Jon Miot

That doesn't mean I have to have the same habitats that they have in displays and multi-

million dollar habitats, but we have to meet the same standards as far as financial well-

being.

00:10:04 Jon Miot

Like we have to be a sustainable location.

00:10:06 Jon Miot

We have to have education messaging.

00:10:08 Jon Miot

We have to have safety procedures.

00:10:09 Jon MiotWe have to, everything that goes to every big zoo we have to have.

00:10:13 Jon Miot

So it's pretty, it's quite a task, it's quite an undertaking, and it's an incredible, it is incredible

that we can do it.

00:10:21 Jon Miot

And I will say Donna really led the charge on this last accreditation, really ramp up to

accreditation.

00:10:29 Jon Miot

So she really did a lot of great work with the students and getting them to understand this is

why it's important, this is why we do what we do, but really did a lot of good work on

Grounds.

00:10:39 Mark Barley

Yeah, so Donna, tell us about,

00:10:41 Mark Barley

I guess that accreditation process, and how often does it happen, what it means for like

what John just described, but what does it mean internally for the zoo, and then I guess

externally when you're taking applications for students to come through?

00:11:00 Mark Barley

this program?

00:11:01 Mark Barley

How does accreditation affect all of that?

00:11:03 Donna Everham

So accreditation is probably the most important thing about our program is that we do have

the 25 years of history.

00:11:10 Donna Everham

Association of Zoos and Aquariums, AZA accreditation, I think the number is 20% of zoos in

the United States have that accreditation.

00:11:17 Donna EverhamSo it really is the gold standard.

00:11:20 Donna Everham

It is the highest bar.

00:11:22 Donna Everham

It does mean that we have achieved excellence in many things.

00:11:26 Donna Everham

And like to John's point, it's not just about our animal care.

00:11:30 Donna Everham

It comes down to the service we offer our guests.

00:11:32 Donna Everham

It comes down to the safety things.

00:11:35 Donna Everham

You know, like there are so many details, how we procure food, our vet care.

00:11:40 Donna Everham

So from an internal standpoint, the importance of being accredited, so it's every five years,

and it is our governing body that we answer to on a daily basis.

00:11:50 Donna Everham

And an inspection team comes, three or four people from the industry, so a veterinarian,

always a veterinarian, someone that has a curator, a director role, and then someone

maybe in the more business aspect.

00:12:02 Donna Everham

and they come and they look at everything.

00:12:04 Donna Everham

So our zoo is small.

00:12:06 Donna Everham

Like he said, it's 10 acres.

00:12:07 Donna EverhamThey were here for three days.

00:12:08 Donna Everham

Like that's a pretty microscopic look at facilities, documents, records.

00:12:13 Donna Everham

Like they are looking at everything to make sure we meet the standards.

00:12:17 Donna Everham

The standards is an application that was 142 pages.

00:12:23 Donna Everham

Yeah, 142 pages of

00:12:24 Donna Everham

It's one of those things where like, this is what we say we do.

00:12:28 Donna Everham

And then when they come, we have to prove this is what we do.

00:12:30 Donna Everham

Because sometimes it's easy to say this is what we do, but then you have to prove that this

is what you do.

00:12:35 Donna Everham

And so that's what we've spent, you know, the past year really gearing up for.

00:12:41 Donna Everham

So some of it was exhibit, you know, renovations, some demolition, you know, beautifying

grounds, the basic things that your eyes can see.

00:12:50 Donna Everham

And then a lot of internal process making

00:12:53 Donna Everham

focusing heavily on animal well-being, animal welfare, environmental enrichment, and just

every detail.

00:13:00 Donna EverhamSo for internally, it attracts a level of students and a level of staff and a place in the

reputation of our industry that we are AZA.

00:13:14 Donna Everham

We follow the guidelines, we achieve, you know, we try to excel in animal care excellence.

00:13:21 Donna Everham

And then externally, I would say the same, our industry partners.

00:13:25 Donna Everham

So when our graduates, have their resume, and I teach a class about interviewing and

resumes for our students, and I tell them, like, as a curator, I have 100 resumes, and your

goal is to not hit the floor.

00:13:38 Donna Everham

You know, like, I have 10 minutes before this meeting and the next, and to go through this

stack of resumes,

00:13:43 Donna Everham

And your goal is to stay on my table.

00:13:46 Donna Everham

And when a hiring institution sees accredited experience, even if it's through student or

volunteer internship, that accreditation, you stay on the table.

00:13:57 Donna Everham

Because of those 100, probably 50% don't have that accreditation history.

00:14:03 Donna Everham

So it's huge for us to be accredited 25 years of history and

00:14:08 Donna Everham

remain accredited, very important.

00:14:09 Donna Everham

It also offers some different opportunities for us to participate in some conservation

initiatives, which is a standard for AZA accreditation and is part of our mission.

00:14:19 Donna EverhamSo whether that's we're participating by sending staff to actually do research, by sending

funding, which we do every day with the admissions, even the collection of animals that we

can get in and partner with other zoos.

00:14:33 Mark Barley

Yeah, so

00:14:35 Mark Barley

When I think of a credit, and I remember reading about it when it happened, and I think it

was last year, the year before last, with the Otters, right?

00:14:41 Mark Barley

The Otters, they went to Memphis, and that was through an accreditation or a partnership

with.

00:14:49 Donna Everham

Recommendation.

00:14:50 Mark Barley

Yeah, and so

00:14:52 Mark Barley

Does accreditation play a part in that?

00:14:54 Mark Barley

It does.

00:14:54 Mark Barley

Okay, explain that.

00:14:55 Donna Everham

Yeah, so there are certain species that if you are not AZA accredited, you are very, very

unlikely to be able to participate in breeding and very unlikely to even participate in having

them in your collection, even if it's just for education, you know, what we would call display

and not breeding.

00:15:14 Donna Everham

So the otters are a great example.00:15:16 Donna Everham

SSP is the species survival plan and it's through AZA and it's a bunch of

00:15:21 Donna Everham

vets, curators, keepers, it's all of us that donate their time and expertise to sort of do

matchmaker, you know, like think harmony.com.

00:15:32 Mark Barley

But for otters?

00:15:33 Donna Everham

But for many, many, many species.

00:15:36 Donna Everham

And our goal in AZA facilities is to have a diverse population of animals for 100 years.

00:15:43 Donna Everham

And so there's a lot of genetics, there's a lot of matchmaking that happens.

00:15:46 Mark Barley

I just imagine like

00:15:48 Mark Barley

Somebody at some zoo, random zoo across the area, just swipe and left.

00:15:51 Mark Barley

It's not a person, though.

00:15:54 Mark Barley

It's the animals.

00:15:55 Mark Barley

The owners will operate the screen.

00:15:56 Mark Barley

They will swipe.

00:15:57 Donna EverhamRight, Well, hey.

00:15:59 Donna Everham

I mean, there's the buttons.

00:16:00 Jon Miot

There's, yeah, and there's some interesting things where, I mean, even our squirrel

monkeys, you know, against squirrel monkeys, oh, they're supposed to be together to

breed.

00:16:09 Jon Miot

She didn't like him.

00:16:10 Jon Miot

I mean, literally, she does not like him.

00:16:12 Jon Miot

So we're talking to the SSP, four squirrel monkeys, and they're going to go to different

locations, you know, because they are not compatible.

00:16:21 Jon Miot

Even though from a genetic perspective, again, the group looked at all the genes together

and decided these two pair, you know, the best.

00:16:30 Mark Barley

Yeah.

00:16:34 Donna Everham

I just talked to them recently and I was like, Yes, so that's not working out.

00:16:37 Donna Everham

She's not like him.

00:16:38 Donna Everham

Send me another one.

00:16:39 Donna Everham

Yes.00:16:40 Donna Everham

You got to retry.

00:16:42 Donna Everham

Yeah.

00:16:42 Mark Barley

So are the otters coming back?

00:16:44 Donna Everham

At some point, yeah.

00:16:45 Donna Everham

John can talk about that, because, yeah.

00:16:48 Mark Barley

I mean, put you on the spot.

00:16:49 Mark Barley

Are the otters coming back?

00:16:50 Mark Barley

They're very popular.

00:16:51 Jon Miot

They are very popular.

00:16:52 Mark Barley

So what I will be working?

00:16:54 Jon Miot

With is I'll be working with our development officer, with Sherry Houston, to talk about that.

00:16:59 Jon Miot

Because the reality is, I think

00:17:01 Jon MiotSo just to put it in perspective, the habitat they were in was fine back in the day, but was

not sustainable for them and needed a major upgrade.

00:17:11 Jon Miot

So we were able to work with SSP to place them in a better location.

00:17:15 Jon Miot

We want otters back, but a new habitat is somewhere around $1.2 million.

00:17:21 Jon Miot

So

00:17:23 Jon Miot

I will have to work with Sherry on that to get some money.

00:17:25 Jon Miot

Like you said, people love otters and they want to get them back.

00:17:28 Jon Miot

I would love to get people involved in that process.

00:17:31 Jon Miot

What does that actually look like?

00:17:32 Jon Miot

And how can you help contribute in order to bring them back?

00:17:34 Jon Miot

And that is certainly on our master plan.

00:17:38 Jon Miot

And that's something that we'll be working towards.

00:17:39 Jon Miot

So we have a 20-year master plan or so, 15-year master plan.

00:17:46 Jon Miot

And so we're working towards00:17:49 Jon Miot

doing well by the animals that we have now.

00:17:51 Jon Miot

So think about the cats that we have now.

00:17:54 Jon Miot

We would love to upgrade and create bigger habitats for them, make them a little bit more

interesting and different.

00:18:01 Jon Miot

We want new primate habitats, so for our capuchin monkeys.

00:18:05 Jon Miot

So we're going to work towards that, and then we will work towards expanding and bringing

animals back that we love, but also that are great teaching opportunities for the students.

00:18:15 Jon Miot

So we're different than every other zoo in that, yes, we're accredited,

00:18:19 Jon Miot

Zoos have to think about certain things.

00:18:21 Jon Miot

We have to think about those same things.

00:18:23 Jon Miot

Plus, how are we going to teach a student with this animal?

00:18:25 Jon Miot

And so because of that, we're never going to have lions and tigers and bears.

00:18:29 Jon Miot

Oh my.

00:18:29 Jon Miot

Even though I've worked with them, Donna's worked with them, we have experience, we

have the ability to.00:18:36 Jon Miot

But these students who are in our program, they have one semester of fundamentals.

00:18:44 Jon Miot

And then the next semester, so four months in, they're working with animals.

00:18:47 Jon Miot

So you don't want to work with a tiger with four months of just fundamentals?

00:18:53 Mark Barley

I've seen those crazy YouTube videos.

00:18:55 Jon Miot

Exactly.

00:18:56 Donna Everham

Let me tell you, those crazy YouTube videos, I can guarantee are not easy.

00:18:59 Mark Barley

Yeah, probably not, right?

00:19:00 Mark Barley

Probably not.

00:19:01 Donna Everham

So externally, yeah.

00:19:02 Donna Everham

There's a really good note there.

00:19:04 Donna Everham

Yeah.

00:19:05 Jon Miot

So yeah, so there's a lot of moving parts, but that's the fun part of our jobs.

00:19:10 Jon Miot

And it's kind of00:19:11 Jon Miot

We're done talking about it.

00:19:12 Jon Miot

It's a thing that brings staff here.

00:19:15 Jon Miot

I was trying to do the math quick in my brain and it hurt me.

00:19:18 Jon Miot

But so we're somewhere around 50% of our staff are graduates of the program.

00:19:22 Jon Miot

And so again, they love, they learned here, they loved it here.

00:19:27 Jon Miot

So now they're giving back to the next generation.

00:19:30 Jon Miot

And it's just, it's super cool.

00:19:31 Mark Barley

Well, that's a, you know, we talk about this all the time on this podcast is the ripple effect

of something like that is that it's reciprocated, right?

00:19:42 Mark Barley

And that's what education is, the ripple effect.

00:19:46 Mark Barley

So it was a natural segue, almost like you'd seen these questions before, into your

partnership, the zoo's partnership with the foundation.

00:19:54 Mark Barley

Talk a little bit about how the zoo works with the foundation, what the foundation does for

the zoo,

00:20:01 Mark Barley

and why it's so important that people, if they're able and willing, to give to the zoo.00:20:06 Jon Miot

Right.

00:20:06 Jon Miot

So the foundation does amazing work with the zoo.

00:20:09 Jon Miot

We partner with them quite a bit.

00:20:11 Jon Miot

And that's, it is, again, it's reciprocal.

00:20:13 Jon Miot

We want to support what the foundation does.

00:20:15 Jon Miot

So I'm willing to support, we bring animals to the President's Gala.

00:20:20 Jon Miot

We bring animals to lots of different events to show, you know, having an interesting and

engaging opportunity, but also create help

00:20:29 Jon Miot

create a connection, not just to us as the zoo, but also to the college.

00:20:35 Jon Miot

Because the more connected you are to the college, regardless of what you're interested

in, the...

00:20:40 Jon Miot

the more interested you are in helping, the more you see how incredible this place is.

00:20:45 Jon Miot

And that's everything here.

00:20:46 Jon Miot

I mean, again, I love to advocate not just for the program, but for all, for athletics and for

construction and for planetary.00:20:56 Jon Miot

We all do incredible work.

00:20:57 Jon Miot

And so that's really at the core of what I do is help support

00:21:02 Jon Miot

this entire facility and what we do.

00:21:05 Jon Miot

And a big part of that is development.

00:21:07 Jon Miot

They do an incredible job.

00:21:08 Jon Miot

Sherry does an amazing job.

00:21:09 Jon Miot

She knows tons of people.

00:21:11 Jon Miot

And again, it's just how do I facilitate their interest at the college?

00:21:15 Jon Miot

And if that helps the zoo out, amazing.

00:21:17 Jon Miot

If that helps athletics, amazing.

00:21:19 Jon Miot

You know, so those are the kind of things that I try to do.

00:21:22 Jon Miot

Why is it important?

00:21:23 Jon Miot

Because the reality is, right, we're living in a00:21:30 Jon Miot

budgetary constrained environment.

00:21:33 Jon Miot

there's a lot of things that we want to do at the zoo, but it's hard to do on a typical operating

budget.

00:21:40 Jon Miot

The college helps support the operating budget.

00:21:43 Jon Miot

They support staff and operations.

00:21:46 Jon Miot

We also have revenues at the front, so we charge admission.

00:21:50 Jon Miot

the public can come in or they can buy something at the gift shop.

00:21:54 Jon Miot

And that does an amazing job of helping to support the animal operations, but it's hard to

expand after that.

00:21:59 Jon Miot

Like I said, 1.2 million for an otter habitat.

00:22:02 Jon Miot

It's a lot for us to be able to bring that in.

00:22:05 Jon Miot

But I know that there's people that are interested in otters and that would love to support

that and be able to say, look what I did.

00:22:11 Jon Miot

Look what I helped to do.

00:22:12 Jon MiotLook, I created an environment for otters, but also an environment for students to learn

about otters.

00:22:18 Jon Miot

and for the public to learn about otters.

00:22:20 Jon Miot

This is the only place you can do that.

00:22:21 Jon Miot

Literally the only place you can do that.

00:22:24 Jon Miot

Because if I didn't say it before, no zoo anywhere is going to allow a student with four

months of experience to walk in and do the things in a habitat that we allow our students to

do.

00:22:32 Jon Miot

Nobody will do that.

00:22:34 Jon Miot

They will not.

00:22:35 Jon Miot

That's the difference is our students get the hands-on experience of the operations.

00:22:39 Jon Miot

A donor can come through and actually help those students do those hands-on things.

00:22:42 Jon Miot

And then you talked about ripple effect.

00:22:45 Jon Miot

Our students go everywhere, literally everywhere in the United States, and then

internationally.

00:22:50 Jon MiotSo we have the students in Scotland, we have students in Africa, we have students in

Australia.

00:22:57 Jon Miot

Australia, New Zealand, you name it, there are students there.

00:23:01 Jon Miot

There's our graduates there.

00:23:02 Jon Miot

And again, that's that ripple effect.

00:23:03 Jon Miot

And again, think about that as a donor.

00:23:05 Jon Miot

You could say like, wow, I helped this student learn how to work with otters.

00:23:08 Jon Miot

And then now they're in Australia doing it.

00:23:11 Jon Miot

You know, there's just such a cool opportunity for people that are interested.

00:23:16 Mark Barley

Yeah.

00:23:17 Mark Barley

So speaking of running into somebody that came through the zoo, I was in St.

00:23:22 Mark Barley

John's County, Florida, last week.

00:23:26 Mark Barley

At Canine for Warriors, the service dog organization ran into a student from the zoo.

00:23:34 Jon Miot

Yep, she's working at the organization.00:23:36 Mark Barley

Which is wild, because you don't even think about an organization.

00:23:40 Mark Barley

So it's a nonprofit organization that places service animals with vets, service dogs with

vets.

00:23:45 Mark Barley

And you don't, you just don't think about, like you think about, hey, I just, I went to the, I

went through the zoo program.

00:23:50 Mark Barley

I'm going to a zoo.

00:23:51 Mark Barley

No, I mean, there's a ton of different

00:23:54 Mark Barley

organizations out there that deal with just all different types of animals, that somebody

coming through this program can hit the ground running and kind of go do something of

everything, right?

00:24:06 Mark Barley

I mean, that's the reach of Santa Fe, and we'll talk about that in a minute.

00:24:11 Mark Barley

But talk a little bit about the tree house project that the foundation was heavily involved in

and what that is, how it came about, and when can we see that?

00:24:22 Jon Miot

So we came up with this idea a long time ago that, so we are landlocked, we're 10 acres,

we can't bring in lions and tigers and bears, but what are some of the amazing things that

we could do?

00:24:34 Jon Miot

So we came up with this idea of starting to build tree houses within the zoo, and the idea is

like, is to00:24:40 Jon Miot

bring the guests to a different level and have a different perspective.

00:24:46 Jon Miot

It's all about perspective, right?

00:24:47 Jon Miot

So when you see something in a way that you've never seen it before, you gain a new

understanding.

00:24:53 Jon Miot

And that's where we started.

00:24:55 Jon Miot

That was the idea.

00:24:56 Jon Miot

And so we developed this idea, and we've had partnerships with the local rotary

organizations for a long time.

00:25:05 Jon Miot

They've funded

00:25:07 Jon Miot

an initiative called the Rotary Reading Safari, where they actually fund books and they fund

resources to help students that are maybe not doing well in school and help give them

opportunities to learn to read in different ways.

00:25:22 Jon Miot

So we do it in an immersive way within the zoo or with our students.

00:25:27 Jon Miot

And so we had this project for a long time, so we worked with them for a while.

00:25:31 Jon Miot

We started talking about this idea of a tree house, and they got really excited and

interested.00:25:35 Jon Miot

And so when Sherry came on board, I talked to her about it, and she said, this is amazing,

and I'm, you know, I have connections in the rotary, and so why don't we talk to them more

and more?

00:25:44 Jon Miot

And so we did.

00:25:44 Jon Miot

We just had more conversations with them.

00:25:46 Jon Miot

That's all it is.

00:25:46 Jon Miot

It's having conversations.

00:25:48 Jon Miot

It's bringing them out and showing them the vision.

00:25:50 Jon Miot

And because of that, they dedicated

00:25:54 Jon Miot

one of the years fundraising to the zoo.

00:25:56 Jon Miot

And they were able to give us the largest donation that they have ever given in their history.

00:26:03 Jon Miot

And it's the largest single donation that we've ever received.

00:26:06 Jon Miot

And so they funded this tree house.

00:26:08 Jon Miot

And so it's going to be awesome.00:26:10 Jon Miot

So the first one will be

00:26:13 Jon Miot

There'll be a platform that'll overlook eagles.

00:26:15 Jon Miot

So there'll be a new perspective on eagles.

00:26:17 Jon Miot

So you get to see her eagle from a higher elevation.

00:26:20 Jon Miot

And then the first tree house is a playground tree house.

00:26:24 Jon Miot

So it'll be two stories.

00:26:25 Jon Miot

Students, kids can go up high and explore again from different, the zoo from different

perspectives.

00:26:30 Jon Miot

There'll be a lot of ground level

00:26:34 Jon Miot

elements as well.

00:26:35 Jon Miot

So we're really excited about it.

00:26:36 Jon Miot

is still, it's mostly designed.

00:26:39 Jon Miot

What we're doing is we're in the approval stage.

00:26:41 Jon MiotAnd because we are a zoo within a college, within a state, there's lots of levels of

approvals.

00:26:48 Jon Miot

A lot of red tape.

00:26:49 Jon Miot

A lot of red tape.

00:26:50 Jon Miot

So we're working through the approval stages right now.

00:26:54 Jon Miot

And the hope is for construction in the fall.

00:26:58 Jon Miot

And I'd like to have it

00:27:00 Jon Miot

finished up by the end of the calendar year, but I'm not going to promise any dates because

if you've ever been involved in a construction project, you know.

00:27:07 Jon Miot

But we're really excited, Rotary's excited to see it as well.

00:27:11 Jon Miot

And we do want to make sure that we let everybody know far and wide as we get to

groundbreaking and ribbon cutting that we want everybody involved to see this because it's

going to be a really great showpiece.

00:27:22 Jon Miot

And I think a lot of people are going to want to come visit and it's really going to increase

the interest, which is that's what we want.

00:27:27 Jon Miot

We just want people to see

00:27:30 Jon MiotWe're a great organization.

00:27:31 Jon Miot

We have a lot of great things to do.

00:27:32 Jon Miot

We have a lot of great things to see and experience.

00:27:34 Jon Miot

And the college is an amazing place to have those experiences.

00:27:39 Mark Barley

Yeah, and if you've seen, like if you go online, you can look up the concept art for these.

00:27:45 Mark Barley

It looks really cool.

00:27:46 Mark Barley

Completely different than really anything I've ever seen.

00:27:49 Mark Barley

Now I can't say I've been to a ton of different zoos, but

00:27:52 Mark Barley

It's everything, it's different.

00:27:54 Mark Barley

And that's kind of the cool part is that it's different, especially at a facility like the teaching

zoo.

00:28:00 Mark Barley

Donna, so we'll switch from the foundation to kind of the zoo animal technology program.

00:28:09 Mark Barley

Tell us about that, the degree.

00:28:11 Mark Barleydegrees that are offered there, how long the program is, how many students come through

on an annual basis, all that.

00:28:20 Donna Everham

Okay, so there's two programs for Zoo Animal Technology Program.

00:28:25 Donna Everham

There's our five semester program, so students graduate with an Associate of Science.

00:28:33 Donna Everham

Thank you.

00:28:34 Donna Everham

Associate of Science.

00:28:35 Donna Everham

And what is interesting about it and what I love about the program is that it is ready to work.

00:28:40 Donna Everham

Like you graduate, you work those five months or those five semesters, you work hard, it's

pretty rigorous, and you can get a job as a professional animal care, animal care

professional in our industry.

00:28:50 Donna Everham

The other thing I love about it is it teaches students right away that because it's your

birthday or raining or Christmas or Thanksgiving, you're still working.

00:29:01 Donna Everham

And that's a big thing.

00:29:01 Donna Everham

Like a lot of people, I tell the students that they are the rock stars of every social

engagement in their life, because there's very rarely someone that's like, what do you do?

00:29:09 Donna Everham

I'm a zookeeper.

00:29:10 Donna EverhamOh yeah, me too.

00:29:11 Donna Everham

You know, like we have the coolest stories.

00:29:14 Mark Barley

They're the rock stars.

00:29:16 Mark Barley

We do.

00:29:16 Mark Barley

Yeah, I'm a zookeeper.

00:29:18 Jon Miot

There's conferences, so that's the only time.

00:29:20 Donna Everham

Yeah, we are not rock stars.

00:29:21 Donna Everham

So, yeah, well, there's levels of.

00:29:23 Jon Miot

Yes, you then at that point, then you compete with the animals that you work, right?

00:29:27 Jon Miot

So, for sure, for sure.

00:29:30 Jon Miot

I love contact yards, but if you're a contact yard keeper.

00:29:34 Donna Everham

But if you're a marine mammal trainer, marine.

00:29:35 Mark Barley

Mammal trainer, could you imagine going to one of those conferences and being the

keeper that is responsible for the incompatible squirrel monkeys?00:29:44 Jon Miot

Yeah, that happens.

00:29:46 Donna Everham

We.

00:29:46 Jon Miot

All share those stories, and then you see the person who

00:29:52 Jon Miot

put them together and you're like, why'd you put them together?

00:29:57 Donna Everham

That's exactly what we do.

00:29:58 Jon Miot

But absolutely, they are the rock stars.

00:30:01 Donna Everham

They are the rock stars.

00:30:03 Donna Everham

And that means, though, that they have to do the hard work, talk to the guests, inspire our

guests to care about these animals.

00:30:11 Donna Everham

You know, like it's all about creating empathy and care.

00:30:14 Donna Everham

Like that is the most important thing that zookeepers do besides the obvious safety and

security.

00:30:20 Donna Everham

of the animal collection.

00:30:21 Donna Everham

So that's five semesters and it's straight through.00:30:23 Donna Everham

There's no break.

00:30:24 Donna Everham

There's no like we're getting ready to hit break and the campus shuts down, not the zoo.

00:30:29 Donna Everham

You know, besides that we're still open to the guests, the zookeepers, the students, they

are working through all of their breaks, which is

00:30:36 Donna Everham

right to work.

00:30:37 Donna Everham

Like it is a good, it's a good learning.

00:30:39 Donna Everham

It's not surprising.

00:30:40 Donna Everham

They know that coming into it, so they shouldn't be surprised.

00:30:43 Donna Everham

And then the other program that we offer at Santa Fe College is our bachelor's program.

00:30:46 Donna Everham

And John would probably be better to talk about that than I would be.

00:30:50 Jon Miot

Yeah, so this is a new-ish program, a couple years old now.

00:30:54 Jon Miot

It's A Bachelor of Applied Science, so a BAS.

00:30:56 Jon Miot

So it's an additional 2 years.

00:30:59 Jon MiotSo it takes the two years from the Associate Science degree, adds 2 years, and then you

get a four-year bachelor's degree.

00:31:04 Jon Miot

The, it's in our, it's in the business department, it's organizational management.

00:31:10 Jon Miot

So the idea is you're layering on those skills of being a zookeeper, you're layering on now.

00:31:17 Jon Miot

things that managers need to consider and think about.

00:31:19 Jon Miot

So we tackle right from the beginning of Zookeeper how to be on a team, how to be a good

team member.

00:31:24 Jon Miot

That's actually what we spend probably the most time on is how to actually work with other

people.

00:31:29 Jon Miot

You think it's a zoo training program, but nope, it's about working with people.

00:31:34 Jon Miot

And so the bachelor's adds on.

00:31:38 Jon Miot

Now, what are the big picture things you have to think about for managing collections,

managing education departments?

00:31:43 Jon Miot

And so it's a really great,

00:31:45 Jon Miot

multifaceted, diverse program.

00:31:47 Jon Miot

So we really love that one.00:31:49 Jon Miot

The program itself is, we have about 60, from the Associate of Science, we have about 60

students start every other semester.

00:31:58 Jon Miot

So it's odd because it's the way we work.

00:32:00 Jon Miot

But anyway, it's A5 semester program.

00:32:02 Jon Miot

So every other semester we start a new cohort.

00:32:05 Jon Miot

That's 60 students and they move together through the program as a cohort.

00:32:09 Mark Barley

Wow.

00:32:09 Mark Barley

That's, you know, it's one of those programs that's like so unique and structured.

00:32:15 Mark Barley

just oddly, but it fits the need of the program, but also fits what they're going to be probably

experiencing, down there.

00:32:25 Mark Barley

So what's the job placement?

00:32:27 Mark Barley

I don't know if you all keep track of placement.

00:32:29 Mark Barley

Oh, we keep track of.

00:32:32 Donna Everham

Placement.00:32:32 Donna Everham

Before you give our number, before you give our number, we just recently had our AZA

accreditation inspection where they were here for the three days.

00:32:39 Donna Everham

And they are, it was four people from the industry, different, all four different facilities,

different sizes, all great facilities.

00:32:46 Donna Everham

And they said, good things and things we need to work on, which is all what we need to

hear.

00:32:50 Donna Everham

The number one thing they said that resonated with me the most is we all four have alum

00:32:57 Donna Everham

that work at our zoo, but we've never been here.

00:33:01 Donna Everham

And we all four, you just gained 4 huge fans.

00:33:04 Donna Everham

Like their love for the program, the students, they spent an hour and 20 minutes with the

students.

00:33:09 Donna Everham

Like it was just, so you can give the percentage, but like that kind of, acknowledgement for

the students in the program was for me better than the other stuff they said we did well,

which is super important because I believe in that too.

00:33:25 Donna Everham

And I think everyone that works there

00:33:27 Donna Everham

And anyone that supports our program believes in that.

00:33:29 Donna Everham

Now you can give the number.00:33:30 Jon Miot

Well, they also did call out what we do and that we do an amazing job with what we do.

00:33:36 Jon Miot

That was one of the achievements of note on our inspection report.

00:33:40 Jon Miot

So the number historically has been 85%.

00:33:43 Jon Miot

So for a long time, it's up years, down years, that sort of thing, seems to always hover

around that 85%, which is, again, I think, fairly accurate.

00:33:54 Jon Miot

You know, we have

00:33:56 Jon Miot

And again, as we talked about earlier, these students go on to certainly be animal care

professionals, but they can be educators, they can be conservationists, they can run

organizations, start organizations, anything to do with animals, they can do that.

00:34:10 Jon Miot

And so it's really amazing to be able to take, because it has to be a, there's a curriculum,

right?

00:34:17 Jon Miot

There has to be a specific set of learning outcomes and objectives.

00:34:21 Jon Miot

Just to take that,

00:34:23 Jon Miot

have people go through that and then leave and then blossom into whatever their track

wants to be.

00:34:28 Jon Miot

It's just amazing.00:34:29 Jon Miot

It's incredible.

00:34:30 Mark Barley

I mean, it is really, it is incredible.

00:34:33 Mark Barley

So what's the like kind of age range is it because I see when I come through there, I just see

kind of just everybody?

00:34:41 Donna Everham

It is super diverse.

00:34:43 Donna Everham

Yeah, it's really diverse.

00:34:44 Donna Everham

And I think that it represents the field.

00:34:47 Donna Everham

Probably doesn't represent higher education.

00:34:49 Donna Everham

I wouldn't know those statistics, but

00:34:51 Donna Everham

We have, again, I've been here three years, and we've had students that were 18, and then

we've had students that were 52, all from backgrounds we have right now in our program, I

think, for veterans.

00:35:03 Donna Everham

I'm a military brat, so that's always, like, I pay attention to those things.

00:35:06 Donna Everham

So we have veterans that have done 8 or 10 years of that career.

00:35:09 Donna EverhamWe have, you know, stay-at-home moms that stepped out, and we're like, hey, I want to try

to do something new.

00:35:14 Donna Everham

And then we have more of the traditional aged

00:35:16 Donna Everham

students.

00:35:17 Donna Everham

The other thing I think that we're representing really well, and John and I talk about often

like how can we continue to build this.

00:35:23 Donna Everham

For some reason our field in the industry has become very female oriented as far as

staffing.

00:35:30 Donna Everham

And so I love to see that our other diversity from that standpoint in the program, I love to

see that because then I just think we should have more diversity in all of the ways.

00:35:43 Donna Everham

And I think

00:35:44 Donna Everham

Also, what the program does that John and I've talked about that can lead into the industry

about our population of students is some of the neurodivergent and different learning

opportunities and, different learning styles and how we navigate that and, work with those

students to be successful and how we could play a big part in the future of, translating that

to zoos, and where, we can help zoos sort of bridge some of those gaps.

00:36:13 Donna Everham

with people.

00:36:14 Mark Barley

Sure.

00:36:14 Donna EverhamWhether it's staff or their guests.

00:36:17 Mark Barley

Yeah.

00:36:18 Mark Barley

I mean, it's just an awesome, it's an awesome program.

00:36:22 Mark Barley

Like, so unique.

00:36:24 Mark Barley

And that's why I keep going back to it.

00:36:25 Mark Barley

It's just so unique.

00:36:27 Mark Barley

And for anybody that's like, kind of like up in the air of, man, I want to do something

different, but I just don't know what.

00:36:34 Mark Barley

Where could they go to get all the information about the zoo?

00:36:40 Jon Miot

Sfcollege.edu slash zoo.

00:36:43 Mark Barley

Slash zoo.

00:36:43 Jon Miot

That's it.

00:36:44 Jon Miot

So, or if you Google Santa Fe College teaching zoo or teaching zoo, you're gonna, you're

gonna find us.

00:36:49 Jon MiotSo again, I think a lot of times individuals don't understand.

00:36:55 Jon Miot

They think, oh, I love animals.

00:36:57 Jon Miot

I should become a vet.

00:36:58 Jon Miot

Vets are incredible individuals and they go through a ton of training and it costs a lot of

money.

00:37:04 Jon Miot

And it's a different way to work with animals.

00:37:06 Jon Miot

It really is.

00:37:07 Jon Miot

If you love the medical side of things,

00:37:10 Jon Miot

That's amazing.

00:37:11 Jon Miot

We support that, and we teach the students how to support that, but really you are working

with the animals on a different level, and there is...

00:37:22 Jon Miot

you do get to understand each animal as an individual, and they are each individuals.

00:37:27 Jon Miot

And you get to learn that when you're their zookeeper.

00:37:30 Jon Miot

And so it's a different level.

00:37:32 Jon MiotSo I think one of those things is getting the idea out there that, I love animals, I want to work

with them somehow.

00:37:40 Jon Miot

Zookeeping is a great way to do that.

00:37:41 Jon Miot

And if not, we still can give you a great basis in fundamentals of how to work with the team,

the fundamentals of animal care, and then you can go on to do, like I said, a lots of

different things.

00:37:52 Mark Barley

That's an interesting way.

00:37:54 Mark Barley

Donna, tell everyone kind of the hours of operation at the zoo, how much it costs, the

memberships, everything.

00:38:02 Donna Everham

Gotcha.

00:38:02 Donna Everham

I can give you some of that information.

00:38:03 Mark Barley

Okay, John, you can supplement.

00:38:05 Donna Everham

All right.

00:38:05 Donna Everham

So I know that our admission is $10, and I also know that we have yearly passes, which if I,

I'm always supporting that for anywhere I'm going to go at least once, sometimes, you

know, even if it's just once.

00:38:18 Donna Everham

And our hours of operation are 9 to 2/3.

00:38:24 Donna Everham9 to 2:30.

00:38:26 Donna Everham

And sometimes, for special members, we have different events, or earlier hours or later

hours.

00:38:31 Donna Everham

So it's always good, always plugging being a member.

00:38:33 Donna Everham

I just believe in being a member of places.

00:38:35 Donna Everham

What was the other question?

00:38:37 Donna Everham

I'm sorry.

00:38:38 Jon Miot

That's it.

00:38:39 Jon Miot

Yeah.

00:38:39 Jon Miot

Where are we located?

00:38:41 Jon Miot

Right on campus.

00:38:42 Donna Everham

We are right on campus.

00:38:43 Jon Miot

Santa Fe College.

00:38:43 Donna Everham

Right on campus.00:38:44 Donna Everham

Follow the noise of the animals.

00:38:47 Jon Miot

But we also, we have events throughout the year.

00:38:49 Jon Miot

So

00:38:50 Jon Miot

There are always, there's always something interesting and special going on.

00:38:54 Jon Miot

So any day you can come visit us, you can wander around and it's, I guarantee you, it is

cooler in the zoo than wherever it is outside your house.

00:39:02 Jon Miot

Guaranteed.

00:39:02 Jon Miot

We're in a forest.

00:39:03 Jon Miot

So it is cooler.

00:39:04 Jon Miot

So wander around, come and visit.

00:39:06 Jon Miot

But we have special events.

00:39:08 Jon Miot

Be on the lookout for those.

00:39:10 Donna Everham

You will always run into a student.

00:39:11 Jon MiotYes.

00:39:12 Donna Everham

You will always, let's say 95% will run into a student and those students

00:39:19 Donna Everham

That's the difference.

00:39:21 Jon Miot

When you visit the zoo, talk to the students.

00:39:23 Jon Miot

See the animals, but talk to students.

00:39:25 Jon Miot

You will get the passionates.

00:39:27 Mark Barley

A couple of weeks ago, I was just walking through the zoo and something was going on with

one of the alligators.

00:39:36 Donna Everham

Yes, there was.

00:39:37 Mark Barley

And it's the one with one arm.

00:39:40 Donna Everham

Rainbow, our female.

00:39:41 Mark Barley

I just think that's weird.

00:39:45 Mark Barley

I'm in emotion with my arm.

00:39:46 Mark Barley

But so the alligator farm from St.00:39:50 Mark Barley

Augustine was the one that I guess had come and...

00:39:53 Mark Barley

No, it wasn't.

00:39:54 Mark Barley

It wasn't them.

00:39:54 Mark Barley

Okay, I take that back.

00:39:55 Donna Everham

It was us.

00:39:56 Donna Everham

Yeah.

00:39:57 Jon Miot

It was staff.

00:39:58 Jon Miot

It was the staff here.

00:39:58 Donna Everham

It was the staff and someone that we work with from the outside.

00:40:03 Mark Barley

From the outside.

00:40:03 Mark Barley

Okay.

00:40:04 Mark Barley

So it was that person.

00:40:05 Donna Everham

That person.00:40:05 Donna Everham

He was an alum.

00:40:06 Donna Everham

He was an alum.

00:40:07 Mark Barley

He recently graduated.

00:40:08 Donna Everham

Yes.

00:40:08 Mark Barley

So I'm watching this and everybody's kind of, and it was this teaching moment.

00:40:12 Donna Everham

Yes.

00:40:12 Mark Barley

And it was so technical.

00:40:14 Mark Barley

It was the most technical thing I've ever seen.

00:40:16 Mark Barley

And it was so captivating.

00:40:18 Mark Barley

It was, I mean, you would watch it and you'd be like, oh my God, what's going to happen

next?

00:40:22 Mark Barley

And this young guy, he said, no, you have to take, now sit here, put your foot here.

00:40:27 Mark Barley

All right, now we're going to take, now put your other foot here.

00:40:29 Mark BarleyNow, hey, you're going to pull that rope in.

00:40:31 Mark Barley

Hey, your foot needs to go there.

00:40:33 Mark Barley

And so it was amazing to watch.

00:40:36 Mark Barley

I couldn't stay the whole thing.

00:40:37 Mark Barley

It was a very long process.

00:40:38 Donna Everham

It was a very long, it was a long process.

00:40:41 Mark Barley

Because slow and steady is a much better way to do things.

00:40:44 Donna Everham

Safety first.

00:40:45 Mark Barley

But it was this amazing kind of display of care, but also instruction.

00:40:51 Mark Barley

For sure.

00:40:52 Mark Barley

And I went back and I told everyone, I was like, you'll never believe what you just saw.

00:40:58 Mark Barley

And I told them, they were like, that sounds super boring.

00:40:59 Jon Miot

I was like, no, it was super captivating.

00:41:01 Jon MiotAnd that's where we get the question, right?

00:41:03 Jon Miot

Why is this technology?

00:41:04 Jon Miot

Why is zoo animal tech?

00:41:05 Jon Miot

What does that mean?

00:41:06 Jon Miot

Because, I mean, yes, maybe, you know, the animals aren't robotic yet.

00:41:11 Jon Miot

At some point they will be, and we'll just have to fix them.

00:41:13 Jon Miot

But there is a lot of technical aspects to what we do, how you actually work with animals,

00:41:21 Jon Miot

It takes a lot of understanding of exactly what's happening, all the factors that are

happening, what's around the animal, what the weather is like, what other outside, how

loud things are, where you're standing, how you're positioning your body, how you're

confident.

00:41:35 Jon Miot

There's a million ways that you have to think about how to work with animals.

00:41:38 Jon Miot

And what we do is we teach the students that.

00:41:42 Mark Barley

And that's, you know, that's the awesome part.

00:41:46 Mark Barley

So as we wrap up,

00:41:48 Mark Barleywe get into our how we end every episode and it's called 5 quick questions and Steve at

some point is going to have to get some music, some game show music for this segment.

00:41:58 Mark Barley

But it's rapid fire questions.

00:42:00 Mark Barley

Just with the first answer you got, I want just, you know, I don't want any thinking about it.

00:42:06 Mark Barley

And we can alternate, you know.

00:42:09 Mark Barley

But so John, I'll start with you.

00:42:11 Mark Barley

Favorite teaching zoo animal of all time?

00:42:14 Jon Miot

Cleo Caracal.

00:42:16 Donna Everham

She's still there.

00:42:17 Mark Barley

Oh, she's still there?

00:42:17 Mark Barley

Okay.

00:42:18 Mark Barley

All right, Don, how about you?

00:42:19 Donna Everham

Eddie the Gibbon, he's still there.

00:42:21 Mark Barley

Eddie the Gibbon.00:42:21 Donna Everham

And he was there when I was a student, so he taught me when I was a student.

00:42:24 Mark Barley

How old is he?

00:42:26 Donna Everham

40.

00:42:27 Donna Everham

Oh, I just looked.

00:42:28 Donna Everham

42.

00:42:29 Donna Everham

Wow.

00:42:30 Donna Everham

43.

00:42:30 Donna Everham

Yeah.

00:42:31 Mark Barley

That's amazing.

00:42:32 Donna Everham

Yeah.

00:42:32 Mark Barley

That's amazing.

00:42:33 Donna Everham

Yeah.

00:42:33 Donna Everham

He's still there teaching everyone.00:42:35 Mark Barley

All right, John, zoo or aquarium?

00:42:37 Mark Barley

Zoo.

00:42:38 Mark Barley

Okay.

00:42:38 Mark Barley

Same.

00:42:39 Donna Everham

Zoo.

00:42:39 Mark Barley

Zoo.

00:42:39 Mark Barley

Who likes aquariums?

00:42:42 Mark Barley

I mean.

00:42:44 Mark Barley

If, all right, next one.

00:42:46 Mark Barley

If Jurassic Park was a real place, would you work there, John?

00:42:50 Jon Miot

Yeah.

00:42:51 Mark Barley

What, okay.

00:42:52 Mark Barley

What, Donna?00:42:53 Mark Barley

I don't know if you know anything about dinosaurs, but what would you do?

00:42:55 Jon Miot

Velociraptor.

00:42:57 Mark Barley

Okay, Donna.

00:42:58 Donna Everham

Oh my gosh, my grandchild would be so upset that I can't tell the favorite.

00:43:02 Donna Everham

It's the one with the thing.

00:43:03 Mark Barley

But you would work there.

00:43:04 Donna Everham

Oh no.

00:43:06 Jon Miot

You wouldn't work there.

00:43:06 Jon Miot

What's the thing?

00:43:08 Donna Everham

There's a dinosaur and I can never name it right.

00:43:09 Donna Everham

It's got a slopey head.

00:43:12 Donna Everham

It looks like a duck.

00:43:13 Donna Everham

No, that's wrong.00:43:16 Donna Everham

And my five-year-old granddaughter always says, like this chemo.

00:43:20 Mark Barley

You said it so confidently.

00:43:21 Donna Everham

You said it wrong.

00:43:22 Donna Everham

I know, because I say it all the time.

00:43:23 Donna Everham

I don't know.

00:43:24 Jon Miot

I can't even.

00:43:25 Jon Miot

My kids are uber into dinosaurs.

00:43:27 Jon Miot

I can't even come close to interpreting what your...

00:43:33 Mark Barley

Yep, that was it.

00:43:34 Mark Barley

All right.

00:43:35 Donna Everham

We had a student correcting.

00:43:36 Donna Everham

Yes.

00:43:38 Donna Everham

Didn't I say a philosophosis?00:43:40 Mark Barley

You said, yeah, something like that.

00:43:42 Mark Barley

All right.

00:43:43 Mark Barley

One thing you wish the Teaching Zoo could offer, this bucket list item.

00:43:48 Mark Barley

Could what?

00:43:48 Mark Barley

One thing the Teaching Zoo, you would, money's not an option that plays into part of the

Teaching Zoo's mission.

00:43:55 Mark Barley

What do you wish it could do if money wasn't an option?

00:43:58 Jon Miot

Holy cow.

00:43:59 Jon Miot

It's got to be quick.

00:44:00 Jon Miot

It can't be quick.

00:44:04 Jon Miot

You know, some sort of super,

00:44:08 Jon Miot

in-depth, immersive experience for the guest.

00:44:12 Mark Barley

Okay, Donna.

00:44:14 Donna EverhamAll exhibits surpass industry standard by 25 years.

00:44:20 Donna Everham

Yeah.

00:44:20 Mark Barley

That's interesting.

00:44:21 Mark Barley

Interesting.

00:44:22 Donna Everham

You send money, no option.

00:44:22 Mark Barley

Yeah, no, money's no option.

00:44:25 Mark Barley

All right, last one.

00:44:26 Mark Barley

Best thing about Santa Fe, John?

00:44:30 Jon Miot

The people.

00:44:31 Mark Barley

The people.

00:44:32 Mark Barley

Donna.

00:44:33 Donna Everham

Very impressed by the resources the college gives our students.

00:44:37 Mark Barley

That's awesome.

00:44:37 Mark BarleyThat's awesome.

00:44:38 Donna Everham

Very impressed.

00:44:39 Mark Barley

Well, John, Donna, I appreciate the time.

00:44:43 Mark Barley

This has been a great episode.

00:44:45 Mark Barley

I've learned so much.

00:44:46 Mark Barley

Cool.

00:44:47 Mark Barley

Legitimately, I've learned so much and I provided the questions.

00:44:52 Mark Barley

So thank you again, John.

00:44:54 Mark Barley

Tell, if somebody wanted to donate to the zoo, how could they do that and where could

they go?

00:44:59 Jon Miot

Easiest place is, again, to go to sfcollege.edu slash zoo and there's a support us

00:45:05 Jon Miot

link there and you can support us there and that'll bring you through the foundation.

00:45:09 Jon Miot

But yeah, we appreciate just, we'd love to have you come out.

00:45:13 Jon MiotJust come out and visit and just talk to our students and learn a little bit about the amazing

animals in the world.

00:45:23 Mark Barley

If you found this podcast informative, there's more to discover on our website,

sfcollege.edu.

00:45:29 Mark Barley

You can also follow Santa Fe on all your favorite social media platforms, X, Facebook,

Instagram, YouTube.

00:45:35 Mark Barley

We're there @SantaFeCollege.

00:45:37 Mark Barley

Give us a like, follow, and a subscribe.

00:45:40 Mark Barley

Have suggestions on who you want to hear from next or watch your story featured on the

podcast?

00:45:44 Mark Barley

Send us an e-mail at communications@sfcollege.edu.

00:45:49 Mark Barley

Thanks for listening and go Saints.