THE BOND MAKES THE DIFFERENCE
It is the bond that our Talking Talons' students form with our wildlife that makes our school-based Youth Leadership Curriculum so effective. As our students learn about our special non-releasable wildlife, including hawks, falcons, bats, and reptiles, they develop empathy for all wildlife and for the environment that we all share. This, in turn, gives the students a motivation to pay attention to science and to all of their studies.
It's one of those things that we always knew, but funding agencies like to have that sort of thing scientifically verified. Dr. Carmen Sorge, Ph.D. in Education, conducts rigorous evaluation of our school-based programs each year in order than we may document the program's impact. This rigorous evaluation includes pre- and post-tests, as well as comparisons to control groups. This process has been proven to have the following impacts:
• To affect a significant reduction of identified risk factors in the participants, such as violent behavior, impulsivity, rebelliousness, tobacco, alcohol and drug use.
• To affect a significant increased in identified protective factors, such as self-esteem, peer interactions, bonding to school, social skills, ethical beliefs and decision making skills.
• To affect a significant increase in attitudes and interest in science, wildlife, and the environment.
"What I like about the Talking Talons program is being around the animals and learning about them, how they live, what to do if you find an injured one, I think that's really important. Also, how they interact and live with us and how we survive together is interesting to learn."
"Doing the presentations and learning about the animals were my favorite things about the program. Being able to see them up close, because I've never been able to do that and it's much better than just hearing a teacher talk about them or reading about them in a book."
"I liked learning facts that taught me how to be responsible. Like how littering or not taking good care of animals affects us. Plus, we did some cool activities that would connect to what (the 
"I learned to handle situations that are scary better, like my animal tried to escape when I was talking but I learned to stay calm and still had to give my speech. That helped me realize that I can stay calm even when I'm scared to talk in front of others."
"The presentations helped me learn how to speak in front of a big audience. I had to learn to speak louder, not fidget or look at the floor. The presentations helped to take your mind off of stage fright because I had to concentrate on holding the animal, plus get the facts straight."
"I really enjoy this class because you have taught me how to handle and react to animals, especially snakes."
"For me, science was always a drag, I could never really understand it. I never really got the whole environment thing, but with Talking Talons, when they bring the animals in they actually make it fun - we do activities, and what I learn in Talking Talons has improved my science understanding and it really has improved my grades."
"I learned how to organize information which has helped me in other classes too. When we had information to learn about the animals we had to learn facts in a way that we had to teach it to the rest of the class. That was hard, but I learned how to do it."
"Before Talking Talons I cared and I understood about the environment and animals, but I didn’t think you could do anything about it. Talking Talons teaches you that one person doing something really can make a difference."
"I would say that Talking Talons should be taught to ALL kids. They need to know what happens … not to the animals, but what happens to the rest of us because their choices affects all of us. Plus, they would find out that science is fun."
