By: Lori Perkins
May is Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month – that’s a huge umbrella of cultures from the entire Asian continent, including East, Southeast and South Asia, and the Pacific Islands of Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. There are more than 24 million people of Asian or Pacific Island descent in the United States, but like many non-white racial and ethnic groups, Asian American and Pacific Island (AAPI) communities are not well-represented in the U.S. aquarium and zoo community.
While recognizing that individual perspectives vary widely among and between all people, Canopy is highlighting colleagues of Asian or Pacific Island heritage during this annual celebration by featuring Jennie Janssen, Assistant Curator of Blue Wonders at the National Aquarium, and co-founder and president of the nonprofit Minorities in Aquarium and Zoo Science (MIAZS). Canopy continues to promote diversity in mission-based cultural organizations via our diversity strategy services promoting diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility.
We share Part One of this interview below. Stay tuned for Part Two next week.
How do you feel about these designated recognition months for different racial, ethnic, and social groups?
I think we can look at these recognition months to highlight and elevate people and their stories, and histories and perspectives. These are times when people are perhaps willing to listen and hear a bit more – the designations help to open the door for listeners as well as for those of us who are trying to promote intentionally.
I realized this year that I’m going to have to put a star on my planning calendar that May is AAPI month, like when it’s Shark Week! I’m a planner by nature and there are a lot of requests to fit in during AAPI month. But I’m so delighted to be able to participate, because I think it does open that window of opportunity where people who might be less likely to hear other voices might be more willing to say, you know what, let me hear this one right now.
Tell me about your current role and your career journey.
I’m one of the assistant curators at National Aquarium in the Blue Wonders department which includes the majority of marine fish and aquatic invertebrates. They’re housed in more than one building in a variety of exhibits large and small and everything in between – artificial habitats, living habitats, and all sorts of things. I oversee animal operations across three different buildings – Blue Wonders proper in one building on Pier Three, the jellies exhibit on Pier Four, and the culture lab on Pier Five.
I grew up in Silver Spring, MD, very close to the AZA offices, but I hadn’t been there until last year. As a child, I was fascinated with sharks – I always loved sharks, and my dream job that was more like an imaginary, if-I-could-do-anything job, was to swim with sharks every day. My family wanted to direct me to a different career path, and when it became clear that was probably not going to happen, my dad suggested that I still take all the prerequisites for the MCAT, because that way, I could still go to medical school if I came to my senses at the last minute. I found out later that he was also thinking, well, if she takes all the classes for the MCAT prerequisites, she’ll also be taking classes with the guys who are taking MCAT prerequisites!
That’s a solid strategy for a parent!
But it didn’t work out – I ended up marrying a chef who worked for the caterer that my parents used! We’re celebrating our 21st wedding anniversary in a couple of months.
Tell me more about how you got started in the aquarium field.
It was really interesting because I wasn’t really pursuing it. I had that passion and drive and interest for sure. But I also had this very ingrained feeling that you can’t do anything with that. So, when I went to college, I was undeclared, I didn’t know what I wanted to be. In one of my biology courses, when we were studying some of the more organismal stuff, I was talking to the professor and we started geeking out about sharks, and he suggested that I meet his shark parasitologist friend at the Tennessee Aquarium.
I went to college at Southern Adventist University, which is a small Christian college 30 or so minutes north of Chattanooga, and Tennessee Aquarium had just opened the year before. So, I thought, yeah, sure, another person to geek out about sharks with! I drove down to the Aquarium and met the shark guy, Dr. George Benz. Partway through our conversation, he asked if I’d like to do a research internship at the Aquarium. I agreed it sounded like a great idea, and then I went back to my dorm and asked my roommate, what’s an internship? I had no clue, but if the shark guy was inviting me to do this thing, I wanted to do it!
What was the internship about?
George sat me in front of a microscope and said, here are these parasitic copepods under the dissecting scope, here’s a camera lucida, here’s a piece of paper – draw what you see. That was the instruction – draw what you see. So, for weeks, I returned to draw in my spare time. I asked him, how long do you want me to spend on this? and he told me to draw until I thought I was done. Eventually I thought I was done, and I brought it to him. George looked at my drawing and then turned to his wall of books and selected a textbook and said, this is the authority on that animal. And it looked like it was drawn with a Sharpie. He looked at me and said, always do your best, not just better than the last guy. That lesson has lasted my entire life. The internship was full of nuggets like that.
Jennie’s Pandarus sinuatus drawing.
It was a really special time. When I was a junior in college, I presented at the American Elasmobranch Society – it was my first presentation at only age 20, and I presented on the research that George and I had been working on. I received a student travel award, Tennessee Aquarium covered all of my costs, and I used the award to reimburse those costs. I can’t even imagine that now – the idea of a facility paying for a research intern to go to a conference. That was classic George, though – he was all about unheard of. He just did it. He passed away suddenly in 2015, and his loss ranks up there with the most significant losses of my life.
It’s wonderful that you had the serendipitous opportunity to connect with George. That helped steer your pathway that led you to be a part of the Georgia Aquarium opening team, right?
Yes, I arrived there about six months before opening. I had been at Ripley’s Aquarium of the Smokies in Gatlinburg, TN, just prior to that, and I went to Ripley’s with the conscious choice to take an entry-level husbandry job, because I had no experience in husbandry. I’d done research, I’d done academics, the component I was missing was husbandry and I wanted to add that piece. I was upfront with Ripley’s when they asked the where do you see yourself in 3-5 years question – I said that I’d be looking for another place to work.
I imagine that was a pretty unexpected response!
Yeah, I think that surprised them because people don’t usually give that honest of an answer. But I also was very clear with them that they would have all of me while I was there. I was there for the purpose of learning, and I would give it everything.
But yes, I knew I’d be looking to move out of the area. I felt like I was the only Asian in the county besides the sushi chef, who ended up living next door to us. When people are looking for positions and advice on job opportunities, I think it’s important that they think about the area that they’re going to live in. Think about your family, and what you know about the area, and ask about the people and the culture of the area and institution you’re going to, and even the department. All those different things matter and can be pivotal to your success.
Stay tuned next week for Part Two of this interview where Jennie discusses ethnicity barriers and sterotypes, why she helped found MIAZS, and advice for other racial or ethnic minorities in this field.
