Through my role in NOAA's Office of Education from 2018-2023, I led the youth engagement efforts of a consortium of 25 major aquariums across North America. This consortium, called the Coastal Ecosystem Learning Center (CELC) Network, works across institutions to engage the public in protecting coastal and marine ecosystems. CELC's youth engagement team focuses specifically on how to better empower young people to become agents of change in this field.
As a group, we came to a realization: while engaging youth in pre-determined volunteer or intern opportunities certainly has value, there is far more room for both aquariums and their students to grow if the teens are given a chance to provide direction themselves. After several conversations amongst our team about what sort of opportunities CELC could provide for teens, we realized we needed to take a step back and hear from teens about what they wanted directly. We coordinated and facilitated a conversation between teen volunteers from four aquariums to talk about the types of work they do at the aquariums, what they find most meaningful about their work, and what support they need from their staff to make things even better. The teens reported back that they really enjoyed the opportunity to connect with and learn from other institutions and that, in the future, they'd like to learn from each other and from NOAA about strategies for making on-the-ground change in their home communities.
In response to this request, I conceptualized and co-led the implementation of the 2021 CELC Youth Summit. Through this program, teams of CELC aquarium teens virtually gathered for three days of workshops and project action planning. Each team left with new skills, connections, and a plan for how they would take action in their community to protect coastal and marine systems in the school year to come. The teens absolutely blew us away with the amazing projects they created. Take a look here!
As a group, we came to a realization: while engaging youth in pre-determined volunteer or intern opportunities certainly has value, there is far more room for both aquariums and their students to grow if the teens are given a chance to provide direction themselves. After several conversations amongst our team about what sort of opportunities CELC could provide for teens, we realized we needed to take a step back and hear from teens about what they wanted directly. We coordinated and facilitated a conversation between teen volunteers from four aquariums to talk about the types of work they do at the aquariums, what they find most meaningful about their work, and what support they need from their staff to make things even better. The teens reported back that they really enjoyed the opportunity to connect with and learn from other institutions and that, in the future, they'd like to learn from each other and from NOAA about strategies for making on-the-ground change in their home communities.
In response to this request, I conceptualized and co-led the implementation of the 2021 CELC Youth Summit. Through this program, teams of CELC aquarium teens virtually gathered for three days of workshops and project action planning. Each team left with new skills, connections, and a plan for how they would take action in their community to protect coastal and marine systems in the school year to come. The teens absolutely blew us away with the amazing projects they created. Take a look here!