I would never have believed that, after first watching "Gorillas In The Mist," I would one day find myself sitting quietly in the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, watching mountain gorillas in their natural habitat. It was incredible.
My advice to you if you want to pursue this work is that every person has something to contribute and we all have the power to help make this world a better place. I learned that from some of my early heroes: Dian Fossey and Jane Goodall. Both women are legendarily great explorers and champions for animals (and for our planet!). Some of my other heroes are women whom I’ve actually met, including Dr. Laurie Marker, one of the world’s foremost experts in cheetah conservation. I had the opportunity to learn from her at the Cheetah Conservation Fund in Namibia. Another hero of mine is Dr. Bernadette Plair, a Trinidadian conservationist, who successfully reintroduced the Blue and Gold Macaw to Trinidad.
When I was a girl, I could never have imagined that I would go to the places that I’ve been to. One reason for that is that all of my science teachers were men. Today, I am a science teacher and almost all of my colleagues in my department are women, too. And that’s a good lesson--never let anyone tell you what girls can’t do. None of my heroes let that stop them, and neither did I.
