Welcome to the jungle

Ladue students share their passion for the natural world by working with the zoo

by Katie Myckatyn

To the average St. Louisan, the St. Louis Zoo is a common setting of enjoyable afternoons and the subject of downtown billboards with beckoning wildlife. However, for senior Patrick Hawkins, this well-recognized St. Louis attraction is much more personal.

“The Zoo is so much more than animals in enclosures,” said Hawkins. “It’s an opportunity for education, conservation, entertainment and more, depending on who you ask.”

For Hawkins, the Zoo is a nod to his childhood aspirations.

“When I was in kindergarten, I started going to summer camp there,” Hawkins said. “Over the course of that week, I ended up falling in love with environmental

Hawkins’ specialized passion for the Zoo is matched fiercely in sophomores Ella Bender and Eelise Riddle. The three make up a small portion of Zoo ALIVE, a St. Louis Zoo teen volunteer program.

“Patrick, Eelise and I all joined individually,” Bender said. “We’re not very close, but it’s so great to know that there are other people at Ladue with a common interest that Zoo ALIVE has enabled us to find.”

Zoo ALIVE as an organization strives to encourage teenagers in the greater St. Louis area to educate themselves on matters of global conservation and unite the community around appreciation for the natural world.

“Recently we’ve been working on conservation projects, trying to figure out how we can best help the environment,” Riddle said. “My group focused on building bat houses for the endangered species, but, at the end of the day, it was more about the lessons we learned in the process.”

Riddle’s sentiment on experiential learning is shared with both Hawkins and Bender.

“The lessons I’ve learned are alone worth every bit of time and effort I’ve spent here,” Hawkins said. “The biggest lesson I’ve learned is that an activist isn't someone who does it all on their own, but someone who convinces other people to give all they can, even if it isn’t perfect.”

For Bender and Riddle exposure to animals played a large part as to why they joined the program. However for Hawkins, the connection to the Zoo he had developed during his youth brought him consciously to this path.

“That first time I went to summer camp, the counselors made me passionate about environmental science,” Hawkins said. “With this program, I have the opportunity to go full circle, since now I'm a volunteer counselor doing two weeks at the same summer camp, being the person who's hopefully giving that same passion to someone else.”

At the end of the day, the takeaway that the three share is best summarized by Hawkins.

“The zoo taught me why the natural world is important and what I can learn about myself by studying other animals,” Hawkins said. “I alone understand the depth of the impact this experience has had on me, but if I can for a moment share even a fraction of it, it will have been worth it.”