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Animal Care a stepping stone to dream job at Toronto Zoo

Graduate Spotlight: Griffin Yan

Working at the Toronto Zoo has always been a dream job for Griffin Yan.

Though he spent years at the popular tourist destination in guest operations, his true goal was to work with the animals themselves. With that in mind, he enrolled in the Animal Care program at Durham College (DC). After excelling in the program, and before he even officially graduated, he nabbed a coveted role taking care of the animals at the zoo.

He spoke to us about his love for the zoo, pursuing his dream job and why students should make all the connections they can while in school.

Why did you decide to attend Durham College?

I had been working at the Toronto Zoo previously, in a guest facing role. I ended up leaving, and I started work in another field, but I wasn’t super happy with it. Animal care was always something that I wanted to pursue, and I had heard of quite a few colleagues that had pursued the Durham College program. It was nice and close, and I’d heard great things about it.

What was your DC experience like?

It was a fantastic experience. I thought all of the classes were great and relevant. The instructors were all fantastic, and they really made the experience a lot better. It was only one year, so it was really short, but in that year I became really close with all my instructors and our cohort was really great. I made lots of friends.

How did your DC program prepare you for your career?

It was nice, because it gave me another perspective. Having worked at the zoo for quite a long time, I had a good idea of how it worked. But the DC program is heavily geared towards the veterinary side of things, which really opened my eyes to a whole other perspective of animal care. That was valuable experience to gain. And my field placement was awesome. I went and worked at Story Book Farm Primate Sanctuary, so I got to work with monkeys, which was really cool. The instructors were fantastic, and having that resource was the biggest thing for me. I’m a big advocate for always having lots of connections.

What’s your new job at the Toronto Zoo like?

I’m responsible for basically all of the daily husbandry of the animals in my particular area. I’m assigned to the Outer Savannah, which is essentially one section of the African Savannah section. I’m not signed off with all of them, because some of them are classified as dangerous, but the animals that we work with are giraffes, hippos, baboons, cheetahs, lions, hyenas and hornbills. We do feeding, training, and cleaning and maintenance of the exhibits. It’s been really cool, and I’m super fired up to finally be a part of it.

Would you recommend your DC program to other students?

100%. It was great. You have a relatively personal experience with your instructors, at least if you seek that out. It’s nice and short, so for those people trying to fly through it, that’s obviously a benefit. I really had a lot of fun with it. The labs were enjoyable and the content was great.

What is your advice for future students?

The biggest piece of advice I would give is to get close with the instructors. They work in the field, so they have all the experience and there’s an endless wealth of knowledge that they have. Take advantage of that and use those connections that you build through the program.

What do you love most about DC?

Our cohort was really great, so I managed to make a ton of friends throughout my time in the program. The relationships and the friendships that I built was probably my favorite part. And the connections with those instructors; I can’t really stress how valuable I find that. It was a really tight community.

How do you feel about graduating?

I’m excited. I’ve bounced around a lot from school and different jobs and things like that, so it feels nice to finally be on the path.

What are your future goals?

My hope is to stick it out at the zoo. I grew up a massive zoo fan. I was always obsessed with the zoo. I always dreamed about working with animals. That was really my goal growing up and I had sort of abandoned that goal, so getting to come back to it has been awesome.

Every year, DC celebrates thousands of career-ready graduates. Read more grad stories about how DC has helped them thrive.

Animal Care grad begins new career pathway at Durham College

Durham College (DC) Animal Care graduate Rebeca Martiniello’s decision to return to school after the pandemic has landed her just where she wanted to be: working in an animal hospital and preparing to take the next step in her career trajectory as she takes on more training in September to become a veterinary technician.

Out of school for nine years, Martiniello had been working in the childcare industry when the pandemic hit. While she liked working with children, her lifelong love of animals meant she always knew she wanted to work with them. Yet in early job applications to animal care facilities, she got no response. She realized that retraining would help and started looking into programs.

Many friends recommended DC because of their own positive experiences. She also appreciated the program’s affordability and hand-on nature. “Last year felt like the right time, the right moment to make a new start of the school year,” said Martiniello. With the option to begin in January, she was pleased to be able to start her studies right away rather than waiting until the fall.

The January start also meant that her second term would be in the summer, something that Martiniello said led to some surprising bonuses.

“I personally enjoyed that because I’m not a big summer person, so being able to do my placement in peak season for wildlife, I got to experience more of that environment,” she said.

Another discovery was her Wildlife and Exotic Animals class, something she was not expecting. “Wildlife was my favourite class. The teacher was awesome, and we had an assignment going out and engaging with the world, so had to go out to a forest or park, and observe the birds, animals, and trees, then identify everything in reference books for class,” recalls Martiniello, adding that she also enjoyed the Animal Handling and Restraint and the Domestic Animal Science courses for their practical applications.

Martiniello was also elated to make a good connection with a teacher who supported her through the program and recommended her to her current workplace, an animal hospital in York region. Now she’s getting to put into practice all that she learned in class, bringing animals back for veterinary technicians’ treatments from vaccines to nail trims to ear cleanings, and helping veterinarians prepare for surgery. She also runs blood work after technicians have done blood draws, and helps with scheduling pet patient appointments using a common software program she learned in the program.

“Everything that I’m doing, it’s identical to what we learned,” said Martiniello.

At DC, Martiniello said she felt very supported with accommodations she found through the Student Academic Learning Services (SALS). “As someone who has an Independent Education Plan (IEP), I used accommodations, and without that support and those counsellors I would have struggled a lot more. My counsellor was wonderful, I felt safe with the IEP I had, and whenever I had questions or concerns, she always made the time for me,” said Martiniello. “They offered a lot of resources in terms of mental health, study strategies, bursaries to qualify for, and when I chose certain ones, they took the time to walk me through that completely,” she added.

With her new job and her plan to gain further training as a vet technician at another college in September, Martiniello said she is grateful for the opportunity she found at DC. “This is all because of experience the Animal Care program offered me, the confidence to feel I could go back to school.”