Senior Abigail Adkins helps guide the guests in the dolphin exhibit with a smile on her face. Balancing schoolwork with the demands of working in a hands-on environment isn’t always easy, but for Adkins, the experience is more than worth it. Every splash, whistle and playful interaction grows her passion for marine life, making the zoo and working with dolphins feel like a second home.
“I started the job as a freshman, but that was zoo camp,” Adkins said. “So all the stuff with the dolphins I started last year.”
Adkins has learned there is a lot of responsibility and time involved in working at the Indianapolis Zoo. Nevertheless, she has tackled every task thrown at her, which has given her more experience for the future.
“I was in the zoo team program,” Adkins said. “Once you’re in the program you kind of stay in the program because there are different ways you can go up or try different positions. This is the highest position you can get because there are like ten spots, so that’s how I worked my way up.”
There are many different tasks at hand for Adkins within this occupation. Her main mission is to be helpful to the guests by helping them find their seats and fit other accommodations as well.
“The main thing is crowd control and making sure guests find their seats,” Adkins said. “[I also ] make sure handicapped guests can find a good seat, and I also help squeegee the floors and make sure all the water from when t[the dolphins] are splashing gets back to the drains. We also clean up around the dolphin pavilion and do all that type of stuff.”
Adkins’ job is centered around marine life. Her favorite animals are dolphins due to each one’s uniqueness.
“My favorite animal is definitely a dolphin just because they have so many different behaviors and their social grouping is so interesting,” Adkins said. “They can all behave differently and they all have their own personalities. Trooper, [a dolphin], loves to come up and play with us at the glass, Calypso is more kind of off on her own and Noah is more chill. We have ten dolphins, so it’s a lot of different personalities and a lot of fun.”
Adkins’ job doesn’t require many schedule changes and works very well with her other obligations as a student.
“Having this job doesn’t really interfere with much because most of the stuff I do is on the weekend and during the summer. There are some conflicts, but the people are super open and helpful with everything so you can make your time,” Adkins said.
The Indianapolis Zoo presents employees many chances to see dolphins when they’re not in the public eye, which gives Adkins a head start for her career in marine biology that she wishes to pursue.
“We get to see a lot of behind the scenes of the training, which is very interesting to me,” Adkins said. “But we just get to see a lot of things that the public normally doesn’t get to see, which is cool because I want to do marine biology.”
Along with those benefits, she also gets to learn important things needed for that field of work. Adkins has established many connections that have led her to finding more opportunities on top of the job itself.
“I get to learn how to network with people in the zoological community,” Adkins said. “All of our trainers are really great at helping us with our college degrees. They’ve been very helpful in that process in telling us about schools. I’m actually going to a school called Eckerd College in Saint Petersburg, Florida. I’m going there because of people I met through this position. It’s also helped with just being able to talk to people in this field.”
For Adkins, her job right now is not temporary, but something she wishes to continue to do for the rest of her life.
“This is definitely a career for me in the future,” Adkins said. “I want to do more of the research side of things, but as I get older, I think training animals and doing that type of thing is definitely something that looks possible.”
