Diving into Teaching: Science teacher Mrs.Regehr shares her past as a dolphin trainer and zoo keeper, and why she ended those careers to pursue teaching

As Biology and forensic science teacher Meghan Regehr stands in front of her classroom explaining mitosis to 30 kids in front of her when a hand shoots up, “what was it like to be a dolphin instructor?” 

Meghan trained dolphins for two and a half years, and though she has worked with horses, sharks, turtles and other animals, working with dolphins has been her favorite. “Getting in the water and swimming with them was the best part.

Meghan says she also loves dolphins because they are big and kind animals, as well as extremely intelligent.

Regehr gained most of her animal training experience working as a zookeeper at Sunset Zoo In Manhattan Kansas, then working at the Topeka Zoo and Conservation Center in Topeka Kansas. Although she enjoyed working with all animals, training with dolphins specifically had been a dream of hers for as long as she could remember.

“I just always wanted to do it,” Regehr said. “I used to go to SeaWorld a lot when I was little and I just loved going to zoos and working with animals.” 

According to Regehr, working with horses in her past is what inspired her to strive for dolphin training. While the animals are completely different physically, the two are similar in nature and she enjoyed that she could be in the water with the dolphins.

While swimming with them was what she loved most, that wasn’t always her duty.

 “I was mostly on diet preparation,” Regehr said. “So I would prepare all the fish for them and then go out and feed it to them and do just a little bit of training while I did that.” 

Regehr trained the dolphins to remember their names and do various tricks in addition to feeding them.

Regehr was deep in her dolphin training world when the unexpected hits of COVID-19 occurred, leaving the zoo shut down until further notice.

“They had to apply for a lot of grants because all of the money they received came from people buying tickets to swim with dolphins,” Regehr said. 

Regardless of the zoo’s issues involving COVID-19, these problems didn’t stop her from working at the zoo every day like usual because the dolphins, like any other animals need 24/7 care.

Although Regehr loved working with dolphins, she didn’t plan on doing that for her whole career. 

“I had planned on maybe doing it, five years max,” Regehr said. “With how hot it was there, and then the lack of time off I wasn’t able to visit family a lot. It wasn’t super sustainable for long.”

Regher struggled with living in Topeka, away from where is “home”. She wanted to see her family more and be closer to them. She also says there wasn’t a lot of holiday time because the dolphins had to eat on holidays as well.

As a result of having multiple problems while working as a dolphin instructor, she went on to pursue teaching as her full-time career. Regher started getting her teaching degree while working with the dolphins, and as soon as she got a teaching job opportunity she quit her dolphin training job and began working at SME.

Getting questions from students and sharing stories is common for Regehr, but she loves talking about her past experiences with her classes. To Regehr, it is an eye-opening experience to be an animal trainer, and she utilized the lessons she learned from it daily

“I think she has a very different technique of teaching after training dolphins in her class,” Freshman Lili Vottero said.

Vottero feels that Regehr’s dolphin experience has been shared with her students and has been beneficial for them educationally.  

“she teaches us about some sea animals, this unit she wanted us to do some research and learn about the whales and how they mate, act, eat, breathe, etc.I learned that whales come in so many different shapes and colors and same with dolphins,” Vottero said. “I learned how they communicate and act around other sea creatures.”