The IB Fellowship | Wildlife rehabilitation in South Africa

Wellington launched the IB Fellowship Programme in 2017 which offers a unique opportunity for a select few sixth formers to create, fund and carry out their own self-generated project. As you may have read in our recent IB Fellowship introductory article, pupils chosen to carry out their project take complete ownership of it, which can be a significant undertaking. Last academic year, Anya and Sofia, now in year 13, were chosen to receive the IB Fellowship on the strength of their project proposal to travel to Kruger National Park Wildlife Reserve and take part in a two-week animal rehabilitation volunteering programme. Upon hearing about the IB Fellowship, Anya and Sofia quickly decided that they wanted to approach it as a partnership, combining their joint love of animals and individual skills to develop their proposal. “Mr McCallum (Head of Sixth Form) explained that an IB Fellowship project had to do three things: it needed to tie in to our own personal future aspirations, to conform to the Wellington Values and finally, it needed to help make the world a better place. Anya and I knew we wanted to volunteer, and the idea of working with animals fitted in very naturally, as she hopes to become a vet. I’m also a big animal lover but my career aspirations are more focused towards design and marketing, which played a big part of our fundraising and preparation elements for the trip.” – Sofia, year 13   By design, the IB Fellowship supports pupils’ projects financially by providing some, but not all, of the required funds. To reach their target, Anya and Sofia had to raise approximately half of the money themselves. Their fundraising activities included running a stall at the school’s Summer Festival (complete with corporate sponsorship that they had personally negotiated), as well as designing and selling t-shirts during a non-uniform day to raise awareness for the project. Their efforts allowed them to not just meet but exceed their goal, leaving a sum that was later donated to the national park in support of its ongoing operations.   “The fundraising part of the project was very rewarding because it made us feel more responsible for our project’s fate. Instead of just being given the money upfront, we were driven to come up with ideas that would turn our plans into a reality. Because of that, I feel we were even more invested in what we were doing as we’d worked so hard to get ourselves there.” – Anya, year 13   This past summer with the money raised, their plans made and their bags packed, Anya and Sofia flew to South Africa and journeyed to Kruger National Park Wildlife Reserve and the challenges that waited for them. “We wanted to push ourselves, to experience entirely new and unique challenges while testing our own skills and ability to adapt to something so totally different. That’s definitely what we got at Kruger! Each day was tough, the first few days particularly so, but we had the chance to do some incredible things and get really hands-on rather than just sitting back and observing. The nature reserve’s staff guided us through various duties we had to perform, involving the three steps of animal rehabilitation: dealing with emergency treatments, gradually nursing injured animals back to full health, and finally reintroducing them into the wild once they were ready.” – Sofia   “We quickly discovered just how much work goes into caring for and rehabilitating such a wide range of animals. Our days were a mixture of intense physical activity, including lots of feeding and cleaning out the animals’ enclosures, as well as assisting with vaccinations and other routine medical procedures. Alongside the day-to-day needs of the animals, we also became much more attuned to the environmental side of the reserve’s operations. We saw how the professionals worked with locals to help them live more harmoniously with nature, maintain responsible ethical culling of animal populations and so on. There were a lot of occasions when we’d head out of the reserve and go see how things really worked in the wild, which was just amazing to experience.” – Anya   The famed diversity and spectacle of the South African wildlife lived up to its reputation as Anya and Sofia encountered a startling array of animals in the space of just two weeks. “Each day truly was an incredible experience. I woke up to the sound of lions roaring about 10 metres away from me. I fed honey badgers, hyenas and giraffes, played with cheetahs and battler birds, assisted with the vaccination of a caracal (African lynx). We even got a day off to take a safari in the Kruger National Park itself, which was a day of pure natural wonder filled with the most amazing animal sightings. It felt quite unreal at times, as it really was like being in another world.” – Sofia   Looking back on their time at Kruger, Anya and Sofia have achieved a project of great personal significance, learning more about their own capabilities while expanding their world view and sense of their responsibility. This is very much at the heart of the IB Fellowship, because it mirrors what Wellington aims to achieve with all pupils during their time with the College. While the work was difficult and demanding during the planning and volunteering, it also served as an invaluable experience that will no doubt stay with them for the rest of their lives.   “We became acclimatised to the difficult and often unpleasant parts of the job very quickly, partly because you’re in a team and you don’t want to let anyone down, but more importantly because these things are vital to the animals’ wellbeing and they simply have to be done. For me, it was really important to actually go and experience what it’s like to care for animals in such an involved manner, since I have aspirations to become a vet. If anything, Kruger has made me that much more committed to following this path.” – Anya   Congratulations to Anya and Sofia on the successes of their IB Fellowship project. More relevant articles :

• The IB at Wellington | Year 12 induction week

• Introducing the Wellington IB Fellowship Programme

• Meet our head of sixth form