Education Officer
Wood Green Animal Shelters

Anna C

00:00:03 My name’s Anna C and I’m Education Officer at Wood Green Animal Shelter. In the initial stages, it’s involved writing an education plan, so deciding how the charity will go about educating people, what we’re going to educate and how we’re going to educate and now it’s at the stage where we’re inviting schools and taking schools around sites and also going out into the community, and the main thing we’re teaching is responsible pet ownership. So how people can look after their pets.

00:00:38 I started out on dual course, so part ecology and part geography because I had so enjoyed geography in A level but actually found geography at degree level was a very different subject, and the contents was a lot less human geography and a lot more physical geography and I was really drawn to the plant and animal side of ecology, and was very fortunate to be within a university that was flexible and was able to move courses.

00:01:07 While I was at university, there was very little information out there as to what the career paths could be at the end of your course, and really it wasn’t until I had finished, did that situation really arise where I had to think right, ‘well what do I do next?’ And a common thing for people to do was volunteer work.

00:01:30 Luckily I was based in a city that had some established conservation charities, and I spent about the first year after graduating volunteering full time for two different, well a conservation charity and a wild life charity really just to get those skills on my CV.

00:01:48 Through a real bizarre sequence of circumstances really, while I was volunteering, I started working within environmental education and found that hugely rewarding and interesting. That led to qualifying as a teacher. I realised at that stage to progress further in a career in environmental education, to really have a teaching qualification behind you, would enable you to progress further up the career path. So I qualified as a teacher and then spent a couple of years working in a primary school, and I reached a point really where I needed a new challenge.

00:02:27 Didn’t know what the new challenge would be. Decided to take another career break and went travelling for six months, and during that time ended up volunteering for an elephant charity in Thailand. And it was there really seeing people working in that field and seeing how passionate they were made me realise, well that’s actually something that I’d really like to do. And when I came back to my then job, realised that really that would be a fantastic job to work within, fulfilled everything I wanted to do and waited six months for the right job to come up and was very fortunate when this job came up, and it’s a real privilege to come to Wood Green and work here. It’s a fantastic place to work.

00:03:11 The most influential person that I’ve met would be Lek Chailert that runs the elephant nature foundation in Thailand. She’s just basically dedicated her whole life and I think she won Hero of Asia a couple of years ago as recognition of the work that she’s done in Thailand and across all of Asia, and the difference it’s already making, the education of people, whether it’s tourists or local people in Thailand. It’s starting to make a big impact.

00:03:41 I’d like to think that it has been a journey and I’d like to think that I’ve now found a career that that journey will end in terms of animal welfare is what I feel very strongly about. I’ve found a job that I’m very happy in, for an organisation that I really have a firm belief in, and I’d like to think that this is where I’d like to stay for the rest of my career.