MONACA, Pa. — These days you can find conservationist and zookeeper Nicole Day feeding, caring for and cleaning up after a menagerie of animals, both large and small, at a private zoo.
Her journey to her career and life’s passion began at Penn State Beaver.
Day, a 2016 graduate, said she comes from a Penn State family. Her parents, Tom and Michelle Day, met when they went to Penn State Beaver. Her brother, Tom Day III, graduated from Penn State Altoona after spending his first two years at the Beaver campus. Her father’s sisters both went to Penn State, as did her great-uncle, and her cousin is currently a nursing student at University Park.
She said her parents also made lifelong friends while they attended Penn State Beaver.
There was no doubt where Day was going to enroll when it was time for her to go to college.
Choosing a major
While Penn State Beaver was an easy choice, Day said selecting a major wasn’t quite so simple.
She said her father is an accountant, her mother is an engineer and her aunt was a teacher, so those were the careers she had in mind. But once she started classes, she realized none of those careers were the right path for her.
Day said she took mostly general education classes for her first semester. When it was time to schedule for the spring semester, she said a friend asked her, “What do you like?” Her immediate answer was, “Animals,” adding that from as early as she can remember she was “obsessed” with animals.
She didn’t realize her love of animals could lead to a career until her friend introduced her to another student who was an animal science major.
“I learned what it was, and I was hooked,” Day said.
The choice meant she could only stay at the Beaver campus for two years, and then she transferred to the College of Agricultural Sciences at the University Park campus to finish her degree.
Lions and tigers and … rhinos
Following her second year at the Beaver campus, Day secured a coveted internship with the Columbus Zoo, where she worked with gorillas, bonobos and orangutans. She describes them as “intimidating, very human-like.”
At the time, the zoo housed the oldest gorilla in captivity, Colo, who would throw feces at the zookeepers — something Day laughs about as almost a badge of honor, having been one of Colo’s intended targets.
Following her graduation, Day said she first spent a month in South Africa on a reserve using cameras to track and monitor wild cat populations.
She then took a postgraduate internship at the Brevard Zoo in Florida, which led to a full-time job. There, she said, she took care of large hoofstock animals, including giraffes, zebras, antelopes and white rhinos — her favorite animal.
After four years in Florida working and living in weather she describes as “very hot, very humid with lots of rain and hurricanes,” Day decided it was time to move north again.
She took a job at the zoo at Nemacolin Woodlands Resort in the Laurel Highlands of Pennsylvania. The resort has wildlife habitats, horseback riding trails and sled dog experiences in the winter.
While there, she cared for a variety of animals, including lions, tigers, bears, horses and Alaskan huskies, one of which she adopted as her own.
As exciting as her work is, it’s not without its dangers.
Day said over the years she’s had to run from a camel — running in a zigzag pattern is the best bet to evade the fast-moving animal, she said — been bitten by a lemur and a meerkat, and received a large bruise from the “really big horns” of a bongo, a large forest-dwelling African antelope.
One degree, many options
While directly caring for animals — both exotic and domestic — is Day’s passion, she said the animal science degree offers students many career options, including livestock farm management, animal genetics, teaching, zoology, veterinary technician work and U.S. Department of Agriculture food inspection. She said she learned about the many options in part from guest speakers in her classes.
“There were so many fun classes,” Day said of her Penn State experience. She recalled animal anatomy labs and classes where she learned about animal behavior, selective breeding and meat science, where they were taught how to humanely slaughter, cut and grade meats.
Day said she’s happy she started at the Beaver campus.
“I loved starting at Beaver,” she said. “It’s a nice small campus to start out at, a nice transition from high school to the college experience.”
Learn more about Penn State’s 2+2 Plan that gives students the flexibility to start their studies at one campus and then transition to another campus to complete their degree.