Faith, Conservation and Penguins: Allie Cook’s ’25 Internship at the New England Aquarium 

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to play with penguins at work? Allie Cook ’25, a biology major at Gordon College with a marine biology concentration, worked as an intern in the African penguin exhibit at the New England Aquarium last summer, and she continues to volunteer there once a week. Driven by the biblical principle of stewardship, Cook daily lived out her passion for conservation by caring for penguins and educating visitors on how they can contribute to the preservation of God’s creation.  

Caring for Penguins at the New England Aquarium

The New England Aquarium in Boston, MA, was one of America’s first modern aquariums and has been welcoming guests for over 50 years. It features a large tank full of diverse ocean life, coral reef exhibits, sea lions, seals and a large penguin exhibit. The aquarium has a specific focus on conservation in their fundraising as well as through their research branch, the Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life, which completes conservation research such as tracking marine life and studying rescued animals. 

As cute as they are, taking care of penguins is a lot of hard work. For Cook, a normal day at work looked like cleaning and caring for the penguin exhibit. The penguin food preparation needed to be up to FDA restaurant standards, which meant spending time cleaning the prep surface, washing the fish and making sure everything was clean.  

Cook would go into the exhibit twice a day for feeding or cleaning since the exhibit needed constant scrubbing to stop algae growth and to remove penguin waste. Because the water temperature was only 55–60 degrees Fahrenheit, she had to wear a wet-suit to go into the penguin exhibit. This meant showering in and out of the suit four times each day. 

As she gained seniority in the internship program, she gained more responsibilities and could spend more time with the penguins themselves. Through this hands-on care Cook’s passion for penguins grew as she formed relationships with them. Even though they weren’t people, she experienced the goodness of God’s design in his created animals.  

“I got to feed the penguins, which was my favorite thing to do. And I also got to do veterinary checks, checking their feet, checking their weight and enrichment, which is like playing with them,” she said. “I love animals so much; I didn’t expect to build relationships with individual penguins, but that made it so meaningful.” 

Teaching Stewardship to Aquarium Visitors  

One of the most rewarding parts of Cook’s job was the opportunity to talk to aquarium visitors about the importance of conservation for the African penguins. Some days she was assigned give a five-minute “mic-talk” to the audience gathered around the penguin exhibit while another worker fed the penguins. She had an outline of talking points, but most of what she said was off the top of her head. Although conservation was a challenging subject to present because of the importance of reporting correct facts, Cook grew quickly in her knowledge of the subject, motivated by her love for the African penguins.  

After the presentations the audience had time to ask questions. Sometimes the questions were challenging to answer—for example, the ethics of keeping penguins in an exhibit or the point of trying to save a species that could be extinct by 2035. Cook’s time teaching about conservation at the penguin exhibit helped visitors understand the reality of animals that are at risk.  

Cook saw an impact when she talked about the importance of penguins in their ecosystem based on her audience’s attentiveness and engagement with the mic-talks. “When you’re inside of an exhibit with these amazing animals that are going to go extinct in 10 years, it’s very easy to feel for them and very easy to get the guests to feel for them,” she said.  

Stewardship and Faith 

Cook’s passion for conservation goes beyond her love of penguins. She believes conservation is part of the biblical call to steward creation, and being a Christian working at an aquarium deepened her love for conservation work. Cook currently volunteers with the penguins at the aquarium once a week and hopes to continue working with marine animals and conservation after graduation. Her internship experience challenged her to wrestle with hard ethical questions. 

“We have a duty to keep the species alive, because God called us to be good stewards of his planet,” she said. “I really, truly believe that even if I wasn’t explicitly telling people about my Christian faith during my internship, I was showing them God’s joy through what I was doing and showing them that this species is very important.” 

Emily Jones ’25, English language and literature