Pamela Jackson said she enjoys showing inner-city kids where their food comes from.
“Many inner-city kids have never seen farm animals so it’s neat to be able to share that with them,” she said.
Pamela said that her experiences at U of I prepared her for a career as lead keeper of the Farm-in-the-Zoo at Lincoln Park Zoo and Indian Boundary Zoo, a zoo maintained by the Zoological Society of the Lincoln Park Zoo.
At U of I, she had the opportunity to study beef and dairy cattle in Puerto Rico and Jamaica. She also studied E. coli in the digestive tracts of cattle.
“The U of I provided me with a lot of hands-on experience that I still use today,” she said.
She said that although the U of I is a large university, the College of ACES provided her with a “small, hometown feeling.”
“The deans, professors and students all took time to get to know me,” she said. “I didn't feel like just a number.”
