Age: 16
Sponsor: San Diego Zoo
School: Patrick Henry High School
City: San Diego, California
Biography:

Hello, my name is Daniel Straub. I am the Sunny San Diego boy. I am 16 and a junior at Patrick Henry High School, and I’m on the varsity water polo and swim teams. I am on the Olympic Development Program for water polo in the Pacific Southwest Zone (San Diego and Imperial Counties) and have been to the Junior Olympics three times. My pets include a whippet (Tandy), a bearded dragon (Tahoe), and a parakeet (Sweet Pea). I have never traveled outside the United States, but I have been to Alaska. I am also very outgoing, often opinionated, and definitely a goof ball.

Since I was seven I have been going to zoo camp and have been a part of Zoo Corps, a volunteer program at the San Diego Zoo, since I was 12. Since I started zoo camp I fell in love with the zoo and all of its animals in general. The polar bears have become one of my favorites because I have learned so much about them and have been fascinated by how intelligent they are. This has sparked my interest in polar bears and made it so I genuinely want to protect these fantastic white giants. I believe because of my excursion to the Arctic, people will start making more environmentally safe choices in their everyday life because I can educate them about the wonders of the polar bear from a first-hand point of view.