Ethics in Action

Emory senior Sophie Kalmin was a child when a rhinoceros sparked her life’s passion.

She grew up in Texas, where her grandmother took her on frequent trips to the Houston Zoo, including special events that allowed visitors to interact with the animals.

That’s where she met Mumbles, a southern white rhino.

“I fed the tigers and petted the otters and had all these really incredible experiences,” Kalmin recalls, brimming with enthusiasm, “but Mumbles just became my favorite.”

In 2020, Mumbles bid farewell to the Lonestar State and came to live at Zoo Atlanta.

Two years later,  Kalmin came to Atlanta as an Emory student majoring in American studies and minoring in Middle Eastern and South Asian studies.

Kalmin reunited with Mumbles in May, when she began working at Zoo Atlanta through the D. Abbott Turner Program in Ethics and Servant Leadership (EASL) internship. The EASL internship program, now in its 26th year, is also known by its short name, Servant Leadership Summer.

Zoo Atlanta is one of 17 metro Atlanta organizations partnering with the Center for Ethics, which hosts the paid 10-week internships at local nonprofits, government agencies and socially responsible businesses connected to students’ passions.

As an intern in Zoo Atlanta’s education department, Kalmin shadows staff teaching visitors about the animals and the zoo’s conservation efforts. She also gets to visit with Mumbles, his calf, Zuri, and Zuri’s mother, Kiazi.

Mumbles moved from the Houston Zoo to Zoo Atlanta as part of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums' Species Survival Plan. Facing habitat loss and poaching for their horns, which are highly valued in some cultures for traditional medicine, southern white rhinos are listed as “Near threatened” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

At Zoo Atlanta, Mumbles shares a habitat with Kiazi, who is not close to him genetically. Genetic diversity improves the odds of healthy offspring.

Learning details about how zoos support species survival informs questions Kalmin’s American studies honors thesis is tackling: How have zoos evolved from mere places of entertainment to critical players in wildlife conservation, and how can they continue to make progress in conservation while also entertaining the public?

Kalmin hopes eventually to work in government affairs for a zoo-accreditation organization.

Connecting the classroom to the real world

Servant Leadership Summer’s classroom component challenges students to become true scholars of the nonprofit world, says Edward Queen, associate teaching professor at Emory Center for Ethics and director of the internship program. Students complete writing assignments and take part in weekly class discussions and lectures. They also give presentations at the program’s conclusion.

“Yes, if you are doing your work, you’ve got to do it well,” Queen says, “but what you really have to focus on is: What are you learning? What skills are you developing? What do you think about this organization?”

Each class begins with a debrief of the week. Queen asks students to consider highs and lows, challenges and takeaways.

“It’s fun,” says Kalmin, “because he’ll really push you to think more deeply about your experience.”

Discussions about ethical decision-making in nonprofit leadership can be spirited and complex, as students and Queen take on the real-life complications common to the work world.

Kalmin recalls the week Queen quizzed the 27-person class on the conditions under which they’d accept a donation on behalf of their nonprofit.

“So, considerations like: Does the donor want to remain anonymous?” explains Kalmin. “Does the donor align with your mission? Will this upset your board? Will you be able to continue functioning without this donation? Or, this donor doesn’t want to be anonymous, but they have a bad reputation. Do you still accept it? People might really disagree with each other, but they’re super engaged.” 

One week, the group discussed attitudes toward AI. The next week, Emory graduate student Chizaram Anyaegbu attended a meeting devoted to that topic as part of her internship with Georgia Public Broadcasting (GPB), armed with insights from class. 

‘To be a leader, you must serve’

Anyaegbu is pursuing a Master of Public Health degree with a concentration in behavioral, social and health education sciences at Rollins School of Public Health.

As the outreach intern at GPB’s community development department, she is helping publicize the station’s rollout of “Caregiving,” a documentary about the experiences of paid and unpaid caregivers.

Anyaegbu herself once worked as a caregiver for people with disabilities — an experience that sparked a passion for advocacy. She says she is “pleasantly surprised” that an internship at a public media station caters to her interest and career goals. “I’m also surprised by how much fun I’m having,” she adds.

She spent her summer developing a resource toolkit for Georgia caregivers that she shared online and at the station’s public forums — where she has had the opportunity to network with nonprofits focusing on disability services.

The internship’s emphasis on communications work has solidified her plan to pursue science education for public health.

“All the things are lining up,” she says, “and I’m so excited.”

Servant leadership may sound like a contradiction in terms, says Anyaegbu, but Servant Leadership Summer has deepened her understanding of its importance in public health.

“To be a leader, you must serve,” she says. “In my career, if I want to be an advocate for disabled people, I also have to know that I’m serving a community and meeting their needs.”  

Learning while having fun

Kalmin also cites the novel learning opportunities of the internship program, including attending training sessions on creating meaningful visitor experiences.

She carries a notebook to write down all the animal facts she learns daily at Zoo Atlanta.

“I’m just having the best time,” she says. “I mean, people always ask me why I love zoos so much. All I say is, they’re so cool! No better word for it.

“Like, just now? I was at the sun bear habitat, learning everything I could about them, and they were wrestling. So, I’m in the city of Atlanta, and I’m watching bears wrestle. What could be cooler?”