Hello! I'm a lifelong Presbyterian who remains active in our music ministry both at my home church and in the local community. This past year, our community started up Heart for the Arts with a mission to inspire others to Christ through the Arts. This fall, I will be beginning my journey into the M.Div realm (all the emotions-nervous, excited, inquisitive, etc... after being away from structured schooling for the past 17 years). For nearly 20 years, I was an exotic animal trainer at several well known zoological facilities in Florida (imagine training anything from warthogs to hippos to giraffes to cheetahs and even free-flight birds on stage at Disney's Animal Kingdom). It was my role as a supervisor in those later years that helped me to realize that I most appreciated the opportunity to help others to grow and succeed in their own lives. This began the process of truly hearing my call-how I hope to help others to grow spiritually, by being a servant leader and hoping to reach people through both formal and informal settings in ministry. There is a great need for nurturing the congregations in our churches, but an equally important need to go into the communities and just listen to others. Hear their stories and see what paths might be led by our discussions. The possibilities are endless and I am excited for the knowledge and stories from each of you that will help to shape me along the way.
Hi, Scott! I will be following up with you about training exotic animals because that sounds fascinating. How does one train a hippo?
Hi Taylor! I can discuss more with you in detail in August, but we focus on Operant Conditioning focusing on Positive Reinforcement whenever possible (just like many people do with their own pets at home these days). We train in smaller, manageable steps so that the animal or learner is setup for success to learn and it becomes a dialogue between both the trainer and the animals. More details to come for sure and I look forward to meeting with you!
Scott- (I heard you prefer Scott--please let me know if that is not true). This might be my favorite intro paragraph ever ... exotic animals and birds??? Yes please! This is phenomenal. I agree completely about servant leadership and feel that UDTS is exactly the place for you! I will be looking for you in August!
Scott is perfect and thank you for double checking! I do look forward to meeting you and the rest of your wonderful team in August!