Even though my day may be busy with tasks, all interns have projects to complete during their stay here at CCF. In the beginning, the projects are mostly to help the staff members, and depending on how well you complete it, you may end up with a really cool project. Thus, you just have to push through the number punching and the fact checking. The reason why interns here have projects is because it allows the organization to get a new stream of ideas from the next generation, and it allows the interns to work in their field in something that they are interested in! For instance, my friend wants to be a veterinarian, and she is currently helping to design foot baths for goats to kill ticks.

In the beginning, I helped with numerous projects. I worked to correct databases and excel sheets about carnivore (leopard, caracal, hyena) tracking and status; I typed and filed posters from the Pathways Conference and past staff meetings (allowing me to get to know the facility and staff members better); I helped to organize questionnaire data from the Pathways Conference for a statistical analysis, and I completed a statistical analysis for questionnaires based on key words and how often they were used. Although my colleagues would call this busy work or homework, I thought of it as insight into the minds of CCF and understanding the overall goals of the foundation!

For my official project(s), I told the staff members here that I have a background in education and that I would love to speak with the public. As soon as I said this, I was thrown into the next stage. I now talk with the public about Center Feeding (where we feed the cheetahs), I give introductions on each of the cats, and I speak with the public during the Cheetah Run. I quickly learned what to say and how to say it, but I think the most difficult part was trying to make it my own because I did not want to plagiarize other presenters' jokes. After about a week or so, I finally made each demonstration my own, and I have been a crowd favorite ever since!

I have accomplished so much in a month, but that is not all. I will soon be trained to give tours of the facility to tourists, and I may even camp with students visiting from a local school! If we cannot visit a school group, they are always welcome to camp at our site and join in on the daily activities of being an intern here at CCF! We raise public awareness to community members, and kids have new bragging rights! Hopefully, I will also be visiting school groups in the area to give presentations about the importance of carnivores to the ecosystem, the importance of cheetahs to Namibia, the misconception about cheetahs, how the next generation can help to protect the environment, and what CCF does. I have already drafted a proposal for our Education Outreach program, and it has launched successfully! We just need to hear back from local schools to see if I can do my part.

While I wait though, I have been assigned another hefty task: to update and help remodel the museum here at CCF. Most of the information is from before 2000, so we have to adjust the numbers, adjust the maps, and include all the new programs that have developed and all the research that has been published. My research skills have developed, and I have learned more about how to take complex scientific findings and turn them into interesting fact sheets and posters for the public to enjoy. So far, I have written about Dr. Marker's story, play trees, cheetah food preference, game counts, conservancies, and more! I have learned so much from my stay here, and it is mostly due to the projects that I have been assigned.

It is truly amazing thinking about the impact that I will make here in just three months. Also, how many people can leave their mark at a conservation fund, help to spread the word about what we do here, and then potentially visit years later to see my work on a wall of a museum. I think if I were to summarize my greatest impact here at CCF, it would be this: Words are the most powerful tool we have, and it is our responsibility to utilize these words wisely and translate for everyone around us.