Year 1 Poster Presentations

Registration for the 2025 Explorers Program is now closed.
For updates on the 2026 registration period, please fill out this form.

Zoo Career Explorers is perfect
​​for qualified high school students who want to learn more about the diverse and rewarding careers available in Zoos and non-profit organizations.
 
​Beardsley Zoo’s Career Explorers is a year long program, meeting on Saturdays once a month (usually the 3rd Saturday), from 10:00am–11:30am.

In their first year, teens will participate in career workshops and staff shadow days, develop public presentations and create a year-end project. The career workshops run from January-August and cover 8 departments at the Zoo: animal care, education, administration, horticulture, marketing & development, maintenance, visitor services and vet care. At each workshop, a staff member from the department we are learning about will speak about their job and answer questions. Students will be given an activity that correlates to the work done by that department, and a hands-on project based on an animal of the student's choosing. 
 
In September, students will give their first presentation based on the projects completed throughout the career workshops. Explorers will present information on their animal covering the proper care, housing, husbandry, marketing, etc. in the Zoo setting.
 
In October and November Explorers will have the opportunity to do a half-day job shadow with a staff member in any of the departments covered during the year.
 
At the December meeting, Explorers will present information on one career they learned about during the year.
 
Registration fee is $120

Please contact [email protected] with any questions.