ALUMNI PROFILE
MUSEUM GRAD GOES (INTO THE) WILD
M
BY KATHLEEN O’BRIEN
ost of us drive, use public transportation, or walk Jake is one of seven full-time staff at the non-profit Preserve that to work. But iSchool alumnus, Jake Paleczny, features more than 160 animals in a “living collection” on 700 acres braved minus 35 degree weather on skis to get of diverse natural habitats, about 30 minutes from Whitehorse. to his job at the Yukon The job stretches the meaning of the Wildlife Preserve (YWP). A word multitasking: Jake oversees visitor Museum Studies graduate, services, admissions, the running of the Jake joined YWP as its gift shop, manages social media, and the Director of Programming and Education distribution of print materials. Out on the last year, and says the two-hour round-trip Preserve, Jake guides visitors on trails, using commute was tough—and icy cold—so now interpretive panels and maps, and organizes he drives in. school programming and summer nature “My folks were living in Yukon, so camps. after visiting them, I decided to expand my The best part? “Variety,” Jake says. “I’m job search from O ntario. The wilderness out there in the nature preserve, plus doing appealed to me, and the artiness of the place. the administrative side. It changes from day There’s a great sense of community, and so to day. I have the freedom to experiment. I much to do, like canoeing and hiking. It’s a build the best program I can.” great place to live and work,” he says. Not a typical zoo, the facility showcases Already, fellow Museum graduates animals in their natural habitat—in a Jake in winter, painted by Suzanne Paleczny Angharad Wenz (’13), Clare-Estelle Daitch controlled way—but gives them lots of space: (’06), and Lianne Maitland (’11) have come to work in the the mountain goats have cliffs, the moose have a full wetland, and booming artistic scene in Yukon’s nearby capital city, Whitehorse, the bison are on a grassy plain. There is a wildlife rehabilitation making a Friday night art crawl commonplace. centre, too. One animal, thought by its rescuers to be an abandoned puppy, turned out to be a red fox. For its care, the Preserve raised CALL OF THE WILD $20,000 to build an enclosure. On the day we caught up with him, Jake was just back from a “The red fox discovery made international news. I am not a 16,000 sq ft pasture literally trying to herd cats—lynx kittens to fundraiser, but the management course at the iSchool has been be exact—to give them a booster shot, and check their weight and helpful to know how a corporation fundraises, and allowed me to overall health. “It’s just one of those times when you need all hands know how to talk to an organization. We raised nearly double the on deck to catch them,” he laughs. goal,” Jake happily boasts.
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