Mia White (2017-2018)
The conditional statement that summed up the original pedagogical philosophy at the PWM was "if you give a high school student as much responsibility and freedom as possible, they will rise to the challenge and succeed." Of course, in retrospect, most educators would agree: students need a lot more structure and guidance to fully thrive, but it is true, every once in a while, a kid put in an impossible situation can emerge a hero.
Mia White, PHS c/o 2018, blossomed under such circumstances when, in her senior year at PHS, she was asked to become the full-time Animal Care Technician at the PWM. The previous Care Tech had vacated the position shortly after the start of the 2017-18 academic year and it put our zoo and program in a dire predicament: class enrollment that year was low and it made daily husbandry by our students an impossibility. A full-time Animal Care Tech was needed on alternate days and the weekend (including all holidays) to ensure the survival of our collection. The process of finding, interviewing, and hiring a qualified Animal Care Tech -then getting said Tech up-to-steam with our particular protocols and procedures- is a process that usually takes months and we didn't have that time.
That's where Mia stepped in: at 17-years of age, she became the first (and only) current PWM student to be hired on as our full-time Animal Care Technician, responsible for the ultimate health and stability of our small animal zoo. Armed with a set of keys and a code, Mia spent HUNDREDS of HOURS after-school and on the weekends feeding, cleaning, and treating the over 100 creatures in our collection. She fought through mite outbreaks, inconsistent food delivery times, intermittent energy-grid blackouts and wildfire-shut-downs, every sort of husbandry obstacle you can imagine, all to care for our zoo. She did this as a full-time student, often times finishing her husbandry work in the middle of the night, exhausted, and with homework still on the docket when she got home. Add to this, she was ALSO a teen volunteer at the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito for 6 hours every Monday night and you can imagine the mountain of chores, tasks, and responsibilities this young lady was juggling her senior year.
Here's the thing, though: Mia successfully handled ALL of it, AND got straight-As to boot!
Currently, Mia is in her 4th year at Cal Poly majoring in Animal Science and is looking to pursue a career in exotic animal husbandry and wild animal education. Her dedication to saving elephant seals as a teenage volunteer at the Marine Mammal Center has continued on into her adulthood; currently, she spends her weekends performing cutting-edge research on the bratwurst-like pinnipeds as a member of Cal Poly's "Team Ellie" Northern elephant seal research lab. A true Dr. Dolitte in spirit, Mia has a heart filled with love for all-things-animal; in addition to her reptile roots at the PWM and her passion for pinnipeds, Mia is a feline fanatic captivated by big cats and has a deep love for horses and horseback-riding.
As a student-run natural history museum, it's no surprise that the PWM has had a number of excellent students develop and emerge from its ranks over its 4-decades of existence. However, there have been few students as dedicated and none more integral to its continuing existence than Mia White. She saved our animals -and, indeed, our program- at a critical point in our history and we owe this Husbandry Hero a debt of gratitude for her service.
The conditional statement that summed up the original pedagogical philosophy at the PWM was "if you give a high school student as much responsibility and freedom as possible, they will rise to the challenge and succeed." Of course, in retrospect, most educators would agree: students need a lot more structure and guidance to fully thrive, but it is true, every once in a while, a kid put in an impossible situation can emerge a hero.
Mia White, PHS c/o 2018, blossomed under such circumstances when, in her senior year at PHS, she was asked to become the full-time Animal Care Technician at the PWM. The previous Care Tech had vacated the position shortly after the start of the 2017-18 academic year and it put our zoo and program in a dire predicament: class enrollment that year was low and it made daily husbandry by our students an impossibility. A full-time Animal Care Tech was needed on alternate days and the weekend (including all holidays) to ensure the survival of our collection. The process of finding, interviewing, and hiring a qualified Animal Care Tech -then getting said Tech up-to-steam with our particular protocols and procedures- is a process that usually takes months and we didn't have that time.
That's where Mia stepped in: at 17-years of age, she became the first (and only) current PWM student to be hired on as our full-time Animal Care Technician, responsible for the ultimate health and stability of our small animal zoo. Armed with a set of keys and a code, Mia spent HUNDREDS of HOURS after-school and on the weekends feeding, cleaning, and treating the over 100 creatures in our collection. She fought through mite outbreaks, inconsistent food delivery times, intermittent energy-grid blackouts and wildfire-shut-downs, every sort of husbandry obstacle you can imagine, all to care for our zoo. She did this as a full-time student, often times finishing her husbandry work in the middle of the night, exhausted, and with homework still on the docket when she got home. Add to this, she was ALSO a teen volunteer at the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito for 6 hours every Monday night and you can imagine the mountain of chores, tasks, and responsibilities this young lady was juggling her senior year.
Here's the thing, though: Mia successfully handled ALL of it, AND got straight-As to boot!
Currently, Mia is in her 4th year at Cal Poly majoring in Animal Science and is looking to pursue a career in exotic animal husbandry and wild animal education. Her dedication to saving elephant seals as a teenage volunteer at the Marine Mammal Center has continued on into her adulthood; currently, she spends her weekends performing cutting-edge research on the bratwurst-like pinnipeds as a member of Cal Poly's "Team Ellie" Northern elephant seal research lab. A true Dr. Dolitte in spirit, Mia has a heart filled with love for all-things-animal; in addition to her reptile roots at the PWM and her passion for pinnipeds, Mia is a feline fanatic captivated by big cats and has a deep love for horses and horseback-riding.
As a student-run natural history museum, it's no surprise that the PWM has had a number of excellent students develop and emerge from its ranks over its 4-decades of existence. However, there have been few students as dedicated and none more integral to its continuing existence than Mia White. She saved our animals -and, indeed, our program- at a critical point in our history and we owe this Husbandry Hero a debt of gratitude for her service.
Alex Brazil (2018-2019)
When Alex Brazil says he spent his whole life at the Museum, he isn't kidding; Alex's father, Victor Brazil, is a long-time Physics & Chemistry teacher at PHS and Alex spent his formative childhood years running around the Museum holding snakes and riding rhino taxidermy while the elder Brazil graded physics and chem labs. The Museum was a place of wonder for Alex, a safe place that he could sit with a dragon or chill with a chinchilla, a place so familiar that it became indistinguishable from "home."
It was only natural, then, that when Alex entered high school at PHS, he gravitated towards the Museum Management program and excelled as a docent in both the areas of husbandry and environmental education. For 4 years, he dedicated almost every spare moment to the Museum, becoming a teen-aged expert in reptile keeping and husbandry as well as a polished public speaker, comfortable explaining reptile biology to any size groups, 1-to-100. Few people, let alone teenage students, have ever gotten to learn the intricacies of each and every animal in our zoo, and Alex was one of those few; he loved the Museum and he was an excellent docent on tour, but his true love has always been the animals.
After Alex graduated in 2015, he retained his connections with the PWM as an active adult volunteer, helping out with anything from summer camp to fundraising drives to festivals and conventions. But what Alex missed the most was, of course, the animals. In 2018, Alex was reunited with the zoo of his childhood, but this time in a professional capacity as the official Animal Care Technician. And as a professional, Alex had a ton of exciting and creative ideas to help grow and improve our existing collection: he drew up plans and created a base budget for an outdoor tortoise garden, acquired and installed new heating and lighting tech for each of our lizards, and assisted a small group of students in developing and executing a ball python breeding project. Alex was an immense help to then-new Instructor Tacata as he gave the greenhorn Museum teacher an ongoing crash-course in Museum protocols and basic reptilian husbandry. He was always around to help students and, of course, he would drop any-and-everything, at any time of day or night, to ensure that the animals under his care were happy, healthy, and thriving.
Alex left the Museum in 2019 and has since become an Assistant Supervisor at Santa Rosa's African wildlife refuge, Safari West, where in addition to front office duties, he serves as a tour guide and assistant keeper. Geckos and boas are pretty cool, but most will agree... Giraffes and kudus are pretty sweet, too! Concurrently, Alex also worked a second job as a vet tech for a traveling vet clinic. From rhinos on the weekdays to Rottweilers on the weekend, Alex's adult life has, like all phases beforehand, revolved around animals. But one-dimensional he is not! Since graduating from high school, Alex began honing his craft in the field of 3-D animation and is on the verge of earning his certification through SRJC.
Currently, Alex is looking to pursue a career in computer animation and is targeting several schools on the west coast as potential destinations where he can continue to learn and master the latest techniques and tech. In the meantime, he's keeping his options open and is always on the lookout for jobs in the fields of animal husbandry or veterinary care. Whatever career path Alex chooses to follow, we know he will bring with him the same passion, creativity, and energy that he has shown in every phase of his life; those same qualities that made him an all-star docent and awesome Animal Care Tech will serve him well as he continues his journey through adulthood.
When Alex Brazil says he spent his whole life at the Museum, he isn't kidding; Alex's father, Victor Brazil, is a long-time Physics & Chemistry teacher at PHS and Alex spent his formative childhood years running around the Museum holding snakes and riding rhino taxidermy while the elder Brazil graded physics and chem labs. The Museum was a place of wonder for Alex, a safe place that he could sit with a dragon or chill with a chinchilla, a place so familiar that it became indistinguishable from "home."
It was only natural, then, that when Alex entered high school at PHS, he gravitated towards the Museum Management program and excelled as a docent in both the areas of husbandry and environmental education. For 4 years, he dedicated almost every spare moment to the Museum, becoming a teen-aged expert in reptile keeping and husbandry as well as a polished public speaker, comfortable explaining reptile biology to any size groups, 1-to-100. Few people, let alone teenage students, have ever gotten to learn the intricacies of each and every animal in our zoo, and Alex was one of those few; he loved the Museum and he was an excellent docent on tour, but his true love has always been the animals.
After Alex graduated in 2015, he retained his connections with the PWM as an active adult volunteer, helping out with anything from summer camp to fundraising drives to festivals and conventions. But what Alex missed the most was, of course, the animals. In 2018, Alex was reunited with the zoo of his childhood, but this time in a professional capacity as the official Animal Care Technician. And as a professional, Alex had a ton of exciting and creative ideas to help grow and improve our existing collection: he drew up plans and created a base budget for an outdoor tortoise garden, acquired and installed new heating and lighting tech for each of our lizards, and assisted a small group of students in developing and executing a ball python breeding project. Alex was an immense help to then-new Instructor Tacata as he gave the greenhorn Museum teacher an ongoing crash-course in Museum protocols and basic reptilian husbandry. He was always around to help students and, of course, he would drop any-and-everything, at any time of day or night, to ensure that the animals under his care were happy, healthy, and thriving.
Alex left the Museum in 2019 and has since become an Assistant Supervisor at Santa Rosa's African wildlife refuge, Safari West, where in addition to front office duties, he serves as a tour guide and assistant keeper. Geckos and boas are pretty cool, but most will agree... Giraffes and kudus are pretty sweet, too! Concurrently, Alex also worked a second job as a vet tech for a traveling vet clinic. From rhinos on the weekdays to Rottweilers on the weekend, Alex's adult life has, like all phases beforehand, revolved around animals. But one-dimensional he is not! Since graduating from high school, Alex began honing his craft in the field of 3-D animation and is on the verge of earning his certification through SRJC.
Currently, Alex is looking to pursue a career in computer animation and is targeting several schools on the west coast as potential destinations where he can continue to learn and master the latest techniques and tech. In the meantime, he's keeping his options open and is always on the lookout for jobs in the fields of animal husbandry or veterinary care. Whatever career path Alex chooses to follow, we know he will bring with him the same passion, creativity, and energy that he has shown in every phase of his life; those same qualities that made him an all-star docent and awesome Animal Care Tech will serve him well as he continues his journey through adulthood.
Bella Sessi (2019-2021)
Proud Penngrove native, Isabella Sessi (c/o 2017), has spent almost half of her life dedicated to the PWM and its mission of inspiring the next generation of conservationists. Bella was a 4-year member of the Museum Management program, an all-star docent involved in every aspect of the program: student, docent, leader, keeper, presenter, camp counselor, you name it... Bella did it all with excellence, mastery, and a heart of gratitude. Bella has mentioned in several interviews with the Press Democrat & Argus Courier how her involvement in the Wildlife Museum shaped her life-path, that the Museum community was responsible not only for her academic development but provided a supportive social structure for a young introvert dealing with the grief of losing a parent, a place where she met life-long friends through common interests and shared passions, and a place where she first met the animals she credits with "saving her life." (www.petaluma360.com/article/news/petaluma-wildlife-museum-struggles-to-raise-funds/)
However, there is no interview, no newspaper article, or even a water-cooler rumor that ever mentioned the fact that it was Bella Sessi who saved our Museum... Until now.
After graduating from PHS, Bella began attending classes at the local JC. She was still heavily involved in the Museum as a volunteer and, that summer, joined our adult staff performing double duties as Summer Camp Counselor and Assistant Camp Director. Mid-year, our Animal Care Tech had to vacate the position and, luckily for us, Bella was available to take over in a snap. She immediately (and obsessively) began to observe and re-catalogue each of the animals of our collection, spending hours adjusting, researching, and creating new husbandry protocols that took the level of care and husbandry of our zoo to new heights. She integrated her work schedule with that of our docents (a common practice now at the PWM) so that she could give them first-hand instruction as well as first-hand supervision, ensuring that each animal was weighed weekly, defecations were recorded daily, and proper diet, humidities, and temperatures were being controlled and measured. At first, veteran docents thought it was a bit of over-kill, but they couldn't have been more wrong.
In January of 2020, one of our snakes had a terribly abnormal defecation, abruptly began wasting away, and died shortly after. The snake was towards the end of its normal life-span and its death, in generations-past, would've been passed over and attributed to old age. But not by Bella: her keen sense of observation and the hard data she'd been collecting on each of the animals in our zoo pointed to something much more nefarious. Bella alerted the Museum Board and received clearance to obtain a necropsy on the recently deceased snake. She sent the ophidian north to the world-renowned UC Davis Veterinary Hospital to have the procedure performed and when the results came back, the news was devastating: the snake had died of a parasitic Cryptosporidium infection, a fast spreading intestinal protozoan that causes death in 100% of the snakes and lizards infected. Crypto infections have been known to wipe out whole zoo collections and reptile breeding facilities and, if not detected, the plague would've torn through our zoo and taken >80% of our live animal collection -over 50 different varieties of snakes and lizards- with it.
And then it got worse...
In March of 2020, California began what was to be an 18-month Covid shutdown due to the global pandemic. Being a public school student-run organization, the bulk of our student workforce had been effectively eliminated; our small animal zoo, facing an internal epidemic and an external pandemic, was under dire straights and serious talks of shutting down the program and euthanizing the live-animal collection began to take place behind closed doors. Bella stood up for our animals and program, insisted that we could simultaneously deal with the zoonotic epidemic and the actual pandemic at the same time, and even offered to officially quit her job as Care Tech and volunteer her time and expertise for free (and, no, of course we wouldn't allow her to do that)!
On the heels of an unbelievably successful community-supported crowdfunding drive, Bella took lead (along with amazing VP Robin Haines) on organizing and supervising adult volunteers to begin the year-and-a-half process of eradicating our live animal collection of the Crypto infection as well as executing -without our student workforce- the daily husbandry needed by our animals. Bells and her volunteers meticulously collected and prepped fecal samples TWICE from over 45 reptiles in our collection, sent them across the country to get tested, and gutted and sterilized every inch of our museum using a molarity of hydrogen peroxide toxic enough to bleach your skin alabaster and make you blind. In the meantime, she and Robin completely revamped our animal handling and quarantine protocols to meet-or-exceed that of the best zoos in our area. She also re-wrote our comprehensive animal care guide to reflect our new protocols and procedures. After eighteen lonely-and-gut-wrenching months of intense daily husbandry, our museum lost almost 25% of its live animal collection to the parasite, but it could've been much, MUCH worse. On the verge of permanently closing only a year and a half before, our Museum program -and our animals- started the 2021-22 school year happy, healthy, and thriving due to the super-heroic efforts of Bella, Robin, and our small, dedicated army of adult volunteers.
Currently, Bella is a first-year transfer at Humboldt State University majoring in Zoology. She is thinking about a career in teaching (in which Instructor Tacata thinks she'd be incredible) but is also looking into veterinary school after graduation. Like many PWM alum, Bells has continued to volunteer at the Marine Mammal Center as an adult assisting with pinniped rescue and rehabilitation, a passion project she first started as a high school teen as part of their esteemed "Youth Crew" volunteer program. She also continues to volunteer as an assistant keeper and presenter for Petaluma's local traveling environmental education institutions, Classroom Safari & Safari Encounters, and has also volunteered for Wildcare of San Rafael (a wildlife rescue, rehab, and rehabilitation organization in Marin County).
Our current and future students -the hundreds that will go through our program over the next decade- students that will fall in love with our animals, find their life-long friends, and teach our community's children some of the most important lessons of their lives, they all owe Bella Sessi and her selfless dedication to our animals and this program for gifting them the opportunity to do so.
Bella believes the Museum saved her. Now you know: Bella saved us, too.
Proud Penngrove native, Isabella Sessi (c/o 2017), has spent almost half of her life dedicated to the PWM and its mission of inspiring the next generation of conservationists. Bella was a 4-year member of the Museum Management program, an all-star docent involved in every aspect of the program: student, docent, leader, keeper, presenter, camp counselor, you name it... Bella did it all with excellence, mastery, and a heart of gratitude. Bella has mentioned in several interviews with the Press Democrat & Argus Courier how her involvement in the Wildlife Museum shaped her life-path, that the Museum community was responsible not only for her academic development but provided a supportive social structure for a young introvert dealing with the grief of losing a parent, a place where she met life-long friends through common interests and shared passions, and a place where she first met the animals she credits with "saving her life." (www.petaluma360.com/article/news/petaluma-wildlife-museum-struggles-to-raise-funds/)
However, there is no interview, no newspaper article, or even a water-cooler rumor that ever mentioned the fact that it was Bella Sessi who saved our Museum... Until now.
After graduating from PHS, Bella began attending classes at the local JC. She was still heavily involved in the Museum as a volunteer and, that summer, joined our adult staff performing double duties as Summer Camp Counselor and Assistant Camp Director. Mid-year, our Animal Care Tech had to vacate the position and, luckily for us, Bella was available to take over in a snap. She immediately (and obsessively) began to observe and re-catalogue each of the animals of our collection, spending hours adjusting, researching, and creating new husbandry protocols that took the level of care and husbandry of our zoo to new heights. She integrated her work schedule with that of our docents (a common practice now at the PWM) so that she could give them first-hand instruction as well as first-hand supervision, ensuring that each animal was weighed weekly, defecations were recorded daily, and proper diet, humidities, and temperatures were being controlled and measured. At first, veteran docents thought it was a bit of over-kill, but they couldn't have been more wrong.
In January of 2020, one of our snakes had a terribly abnormal defecation, abruptly began wasting away, and died shortly after. The snake was towards the end of its normal life-span and its death, in generations-past, would've been passed over and attributed to old age. But not by Bella: her keen sense of observation and the hard data she'd been collecting on each of the animals in our zoo pointed to something much more nefarious. Bella alerted the Museum Board and received clearance to obtain a necropsy on the recently deceased snake. She sent the ophidian north to the world-renowned UC Davis Veterinary Hospital to have the procedure performed and when the results came back, the news was devastating: the snake had died of a parasitic Cryptosporidium infection, a fast spreading intestinal protozoan that causes death in 100% of the snakes and lizards infected. Crypto infections have been known to wipe out whole zoo collections and reptile breeding facilities and, if not detected, the plague would've torn through our zoo and taken >80% of our live animal collection -over 50 different varieties of snakes and lizards- with it.
And then it got worse...
In March of 2020, California began what was to be an 18-month Covid shutdown due to the global pandemic. Being a public school student-run organization, the bulk of our student workforce had been effectively eliminated; our small animal zoo, facing an internal epidemic and an external pandemic, was under dire straights and serious talks of shutting down the program and euthanizing the live-animal collection began to take place behind closed doors. Bella stood up for our animals and program, insisted that we could simultaneously deal with the zoonotic epidemic and the actual pandemic at the same time, and even offered to officially quit her job as Care Tech and volunteer her time and expertise for free (and, no, of course we wouldn't allow her to do that)!
On the heels of an unbelievably successful community-supported crowdfunding drive, Bella took lead (along with amazing VP Robin Haines) on organizing and supervising adult volunteers to begin the year-and-a-half process of eradicating our live animal collection of the Crypto infection as well as executing -without our student workforce- the daily husbandry needed by our animals. Bells and her volunteers meticulously collected and prepped fecal samples TWICE from over 45 reptiles in our collection, sent them across the country to get tested, and gutted and sterilized every inch of our museum using a molarity of hydrogen peroxide toxic enough to bleach your skin alabaster and make you blind. In the meantime, she and Robin completely revamped our animal handling and quarantine protocols to meet-or-exceed that of the best zoos in our area. She also re-wrote our comprehensive animal care guide to reflect our new protocols and procedures. After eighteen lonely-and-gut-wrenching months of intense daily husbandry, our museum lost almost 25% of its live animal collection to the parasite, but it could've been much, MUCH worse. On the verge of permanently closing only a year and a half before, our Museum program -and our animals- started the 2021-22 school year happy, healthy, and thriving due to the super-heroic efforts of Bella, Robin, and our small, dedicated army of adult volunteers.
Currently, Bella is a first-year transfer at Humboldt State University majoring in Zoology. She is thinking about a career in teaching (in which Instructor Tacata thinks she'd be incredible) but is also looking into veterinary school after graduation. Like many PWM alum, Bells has continued to volunteer at the Marine Mammal Center as an adult assisting with pinniped rescue and rehabilitation, a passion project she first started as a high school teen as part of their esteemed "Youth Crew" volunteer program. She also continues to volunteer as an assistant keeper and presenter for Petaluma's local traveling environmental education institutions, Classroom Safari & Safari Encounters, and has also volunteered for Wildcare of San Rafael (a wildlife rescue, rehab, and rehabilitation organization in Marin County).
Our current and future students -the hundreds that will go through our program over the next decade- students that will fall in love with our animals, find their life-long friends, and teach our community's children some of the most important lessons of their lives, they all owe Bella Sessi and her selfless dedication to our animals and this program for gifting them the opportunity to do so.
Bella believes the Museum saved her. Now you know: Bella saved us, too.