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Hi guys. I'm Maya Higa. I'm the founder and executive director of Alveus Sanctuary, which is a non-profit animal sanctuary and conservation education center. And I love teaching people about conservation and wildlife, and I'm part of the Creator Cohort 2026. I would tell my 9-year-old self that I can be a little bit less competitive. I was always really, really concerned about my grades and about extracurriculars, and the things that I really loved doing, like spending time on the farm with animals and being outside, I always felt kind of guilty about doing. Turns out when I look back at my childhood, those are the things that I remember the most and that actually made me who I am. Number one is my sister cuz she's awesome. Number two
is Jane Goodall, she's influenced everything that I do in my life and how we all see science and how we all see wildlife forever. Steve Irwin, his enthusiasm is infectious and I want to be even a portion of that myself one day. Victor Wembanyama, because he's uh he plays for the San Antonio Spurs. He's like 7-foot-5, I just want to see if I can high-five him. I think that'd be fun. Bill Nye introduced me to science and got me really excited about it as a kid and made it feel really fun. Michelle Obama, duh. She's awesome. And Pop Smoke, he's my favorite artist. I would visit Australia because of the wildlife. There's so much wildlife in Australia that is found nowhere else in the world. I also am a little bit obsessed with wombats and I
heard they're all over out there, so I would like to go find them. They poop cubes. Like, what? My ideal 6:00 p.m. would be grabbing a beer and taking my horse for a walk. I grab an apple. We walk down the road, I snack on the apple, he snacks on grass. When I'm done with the apple, he eats the core. And then the sun sets and we walk back together, and it's beautiful and wonderful. Number one for me is stewardship. One of my core values is leaving things better than I found it, and that's both for our planet and our wild places and also for the people around me. Number two is confidence. I've learned as I've gotten older that you just kind of have to fake it until you make it and fake being confident.
I'm doing it right now. Dependability. I want people to depend on me to be there for them and to do what I say I'm going to do. And warmth is one that's really important to me. I want people to feel safe around me. The last one is kind of the only word I've ever considered getting tattooed on my body is cadence. And it's this feeling that you have when you're riding a horse equals love rhythm. And so you kind of get you get into a rhythm with them when you're riding and it feels really good and there's this momentum. And if you stop that momentum, everything kind of falls apart. So, cadence is really important to me, that rhythm of life and the movement of life. So, my first one is sourdough bread.
It's my favorite food ever. I could eat it forever. Pickles. Controversial, maybe to some people, but every day. Every Onion rings. I don't think that's controversial, but maybe every day is controversial. Not for me, though. Every day. Oranges. Any variety of orange, really. I think they're refreshing and I think they're good for you. This is a hard question. My mom always told me that you always have to find your pony in the pile of poop. And you can say, "Ew, gross, a pile of poop." Or you can look at it and say, "Wow, I have a pony." And that's the only reason I have this pile of poop. It's all about perspective. When we're kids and we're growing up, you look at all the grown-ups around you and you're like,
man, that everybody has it figured out. And then you become one of the grown-ups and you look around and you think, "Oh my gosh, nobody knows what is going on." It's a really humanizing and humbling experience. And everyone is experiencing life for the first time. And then I think that the amount of beauty in your life that surrounds you is entirely dependent on your ability to notice it. And I didn't really understand this until I fell in love with invertebrates. Because once I started loving bugs and caring about bugs, you can go anywhere, any country, any city, and it's brought so much joy to my life. The more you
notice things and the more you notice beauty, the more filled up you are. Australians are going to laugh at me for this, but one of them is a wombat. And I say they're going to laugh because they're very common, I think, but they have evaded me. I love them so I'm so obsessed with them. I think they're so cute, and I've never seen one in person. It's one of my favorite animals. Really any kind of large beetle, I'm talking like heavy, like big beetle, like a Goliath beetle maybe. Easy, the one person that's had the most impact on my life is my mom. Throughout my entire life, she's taught me everything, and she loves animals and wildlife, and it transferred to me, and that's why I am who I am today.
