What are the responsibilities and job description for the Wildlife Rehabilitation Animal Enrichment Internship - Unpaid position at Stark Parks?
The Stark County Park District is currently seeking unpaid, part time Wildlife Enrichment interns to further their education in animal enrichment and experience at our Wildlife Conservation Center. If you're passionate about wildlife animals big and small and wish to gain some hands-on experience in animal care, we're the place for you!
Essential Functions:
- Gain a working knowledge of Ohio's native wildlife, human/wildlife conflicts, non-lethal solutions, and state and federal regulations governing wildlife rehabilitation.
- With close supervision care for education animals (cleaning, diets, and enrichments) and learn species specific daily enrichment practices for our education animals and some rehabilitation animals through diets, caging criteria, handling techniques, toys, programing, data collection and entry, etc.
- Student may be asked to help with basic general duties as needed such as: laundry, dishes, cage cleaning, equipment cleaning, etc.
- Students will also be responsible for creating and completing a project, Featured Case featuring a novel enrichment item and any findings from their enrichment item. This feature will be displayed on our website and/or face book for public viewing.
- Gain valuable customer service, communication, listening and leadership skills through customer interactions.
- Encounter moderate to frequent exposure to insects, poisonous vegetation, zoonotic diseases and moderate exposure to outside weather conditions throughout the year.
Skills/Experience/Abilities:
- Must currently be actively working on a degree in field of biology, pre-vet, zoology, conservation, or equivalent field(s)
- Lower or upper-class students encouraged to apply
- Effective organizational skills
- Effective interpersonal skills
- GPA of 3.00 or higher preferred
Basic Requirements:
Some (3-6 months minimum) wildlife rehabilitation, or veterinary experience, or related field preferred interest in animal enrichment research required. Ohio state certification in Wildlife Rehabilitation I preferred, not required. Please note that students will not be able to care for any Rabies Vector Species (RVS) unless they are up to date on vaccinations and have signed off on appropriate waivers as per the Wildlife Conservation Center policy.
Hours: 24-32 hours a week for duration of 14 weeks, May 12, 2025 through August 18, 2025. Ability to work a pre-determined hours and days of the week and a varied schedule including weekends is required. Typical scheduled shifts are 8:00a.m. 2:00p.m. and 2:00p.m. 8:00p.m. but may vary with advance notice.
EOE - M/F/D/V
