The Coastal Ecosystem Learning Centers (CELC) network held their first in-person Youth Summit at the South Carolina Aquarium in Charleston on July 24-27, 2024. They heard from speakers, took part in a local conservation project, and began planning how to apply their new knowledge back home.
Forty-six teens attended, representing seven aquariums: Aquarium of the Pacific offsite link, Audubon Aquarium offsite link, Mystic Aquarium offsite link, New York Aquarium offsite link, Oregon Coast Aquarium offsite link, Shedd Aquarium offsite link, and South Carolina Aquarium offsite link. The summit prepared teens for a year of environmental action in their communities.
The summit was organized and coordinated with the significant input and contributions from the Youth Planning Team, a group of young leaders from across our partner aquariums and funded through eeBLUE offsite link, a partnership between NOAA’s Office of Education and the North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE). Keep reading to hear what the summit was like from the viewpoint of one of the Youth Planning Team members, Linda Garzeria.
A night at the aquarium
T’Noya Thompson (Ph.D. candidate and consultant, Wild Spark Consulting and NAAEE) kicked off the Youth Summit with a talk on how to master the art and science of leadership and followership. Then the teens explored the South Carolina Aquarium on a scavenger hunt organized by the South Carolina Aquarium interns. At the same time, the invited speakers and adults from the aquariums, NAAEE, and NOAA took a moment to reflect on the value of the ocean and their role in empowering young people to do the same. The evening was wrapped up with tacos and a young professionals panel. Kayla Mladinich Poole, Ph.D., (Knauss Marine Policy Fellow, NOAA Office of Education), Kaleigh Ballantine (Communications Specialist and Graphic Designer, NOAA Office of Education), and Shelley Shrader (Teen Programs Coordinator, South Carolina Aquarium) discussed their different career paths and answered questions from the teens.
A day of learning
On the second day of the Youth Summit, teens spent the day engaging with and learning from speakers recruited by the Youth Planning Team. The speakers discussed a variety of topics, including workforce development in clean energy, first-hand experiences with the fallout of extreme weather events, and communicating your climate story. The day was full of interactive workshops, where speakers had the teens think through their personal career goals and what to consider when designing an action project. After a full conference day, the speakers and teens took some time to craft, play games, and network.
Teens spent a day at the CELC Youth Summit listening and engaging with the invited speakers. (Image credit: Karson Photography)
Liberty Boyd (left) is finishing up her Ph.D. at Florida International University studying marine ecology with a focus on sea turtles. She spoke to the teens about the importance of finding your “why” as a young adult in the marine career field. Liberty was recruited to speak by Youth Planning Team member Nevaeh Thomas (right, South Carolina Aquarium). (Image credit: Kayla Mladinich Poole/NOAA)
Jill Henck (right, Director of the Adirondack North Country Association’s Clean Energy Program) was recruited to speak about workforce development in clean energy by Youth Planning Team member, Alice Chen (left, New York Aquarium). They were able to connect and craft together after a fun day of learning! (Image credit: Alice Chen/New York Aquarium)
Youth Planning Team member Linda Garziera (left, South Carolina Aquarium) recruited Tamara Butler, Ph.D., (right, Executive Director, Avery research Center for African American History and Culture) to speak at the Youth Summit. Butler described how generations of women on three continents and two islands taught her about love and land. (Image credit: Shelley Shrader/South Carolina Aquarium)
Sean Russell (right, EarthEcho International) was recruited by Youth Planning Team member Arianna Madlock (left, Shedd Aquarium) to talk about how youth leadership is critical in ocean conservation and restoration efforts. (Image credit: Kayla Mladinich Poole/NOAA)
Youth Planning Team member Ava Casey (middle, South Carolina Aquarium) invited Toby Cox (left) and Jonah Chester (right) from the Post and Courier offsite link in South Carolina to lead a workshop on climate storytelling. (Image credit: Kayla Mladinich Poole/NOAA)
A day of action and fun
On the third day of the summit, the teens toured the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources Marine Resources Center and the NOAA National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science Hollings Marine Laboratory before taking part in an oyster reef restoration project. Linda Garziera, South Carolina Aquarium Youth Planning Team member, shares her experience in her own words here.
As a group, we set off for Fort Johnson, bright and early, to explore the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources (SCDNR) Marine Resources Center and get our hands dirty with some conservation work. The morning started with tours of the various facilities, labs, and indoor classrooms, and allowed us teens to see some graduate student research in action. We were invited to the College of Charleston Grice Marine Lab, where we handled some local species and saw the extensive wet specimen library — a vast room not unlike ones found in sci-fi movies. This effect doubled when, inside the Hollings Marine Laboratory, moving down white-walled corridors past soft whirring of machines, we were brought to the National Institute of Standards and Technology Biorepository facility, a part of the lab that uses liquid nitrogen to achieve long term-archival of specimens for past and present environmental health analysis. At every corner, our curiosity magnified. We met with a number of passionate NOAA scientists including those working with scanning electron microscopes, experts in fish breeding and population care, harmful algal bloom analysts, and coral “doctors” who brought us to a quiet, blue-lit room rich with rare and healthy corals.
Inspired by the tours and fueled by a quick lunch, we dove right into the conservation project, building manufactured wire oyster reefs for the SCDNR. The oyster reef build started on two unsure feet. There was a storm threatening to hit Charleston, and we were anxious to learn how to use the power tools before us. But with our teamwork, resilience, and great demonstrations from AmeriCorps volunteers, everyone was soon manning the wire press, the stapler gun, and big wide nets with ease. We fell into routine bending the metal mesh into shape, filling buckets with oyster shells, passing tools to one another. Everything smelled of rain, mud, and sweet coconut husk. By the end of the afternoon, the teams of aquariums, speakers, and facilitators had made 26 reefs — enough to give home to 300 species, encourage spat settlement, and combat oyster depletion from the South Carolina coast. We piled up our oyster reefs in the rain and celebrated our efforts with some very proud aquarium educators.
Before heading home…
The teens sat down with their aquarium team leads and brainstormed ideas for action projects. Everyone took some time to reflect on what they learned, how it made them feel, and the connections they made with their peers and the invited speakers. Now that the summit is complete, the aquarium teens will begin a community needs assessment to determine what action projects would benefit their community most. Check back next spring to see what these amazing youths were able to accomplish!