Molly Ryan: Climate Change and Human Rights in Vanuatu

Posted on by

Permanent Mission of Vanuatu to the United Nations
June 13-September 5, 2022
New York, New York, USA

Vanuatu has announced its intentions to take on the campaign to seek an Advisory Opinion from the International Court of Justice on the issue of climate change and human rights, specifically to seek clarification of the legal duties of large emitters of greenhouse gases with respect to present and future generations. The campaign seeks to put this as a resolution to the United Nations General Assembly where all countries will be asked to vote on the Vanuatu proposal. Seeing greater leadership from states in supporting this resolution will be crucial for success. The Fellow will assist the Vanuatu legal and communications team on this campaign.

Megan Spitzer: Promoting Sustainable Diving and Fishing in the Florida Keys

Posted on by

NOAA Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary
May 30-August 16, 2022
Key Largo, Florida, USA

Megan is working with Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary to conduct a Needs Based Assessment of their Blue Star Program. Blue Star partners with local diving and fishing operators in order to implement more sustainable practices and education through their certification voluntary recognition program. Megan will be conducting interviews with both Sanctuary staff and partnering operators in order to evaluate the program and make any recommendations for its continued success.

Madison Springfield: Empowering youth to become ocean stewards

Posted on by

The Wahine Project
June 6th- August 12th, 2022
Sand City, California, USA

The Wahine Project is a non-profit based in Monterey Bay, CA which seeks to inspire a global response that eliminates the barriers preventing a diversity of youth from a personal relationship with the ocean and with one another. This summer, Maddy will work as the Education Outreach Coordinator and will develop and design a marine education curriculum for grades 2-12 to be used during camp programming. Maddy will also implement and teach the curriculum with the campers. Marine lessons will be presented to every age group during the week and topics will range from climate change’s impact on the ocean, to plastic pollution, to marine biology. The overall goal of this summer project is to increase camp participants’ awareness of the problems impacting the ocean, ways to address these problems, and empower them to become ocean stewards in their own lives. The Education Outreach Coordinator will also be a camp instructor, working with the campers in the ocean through various ocean sports including surfing, boogie boarding, and more.

Madeline Warner: Turning the tide on plastics by amplifying youth voices

Posted on by

Plastic Tides
June 13, 2022 – August 26, 2022
Cyberspace

Plastic Tides uses online environmental education campaigns to educate the global community and empower youth to take action against the plastic crisis. Plastic Tides currently maintains an active presence on six accounts across five different social media platforms, providing reliable information and communicating complex topics in environmental science and ecology – free of charge – to a global audience, with minimal barriers to access. Plastic Tides has established its name as a trusted educational outlet and resource for an online community of over fifty thousand followers, and will continue to expand its reach as the organization grows. In particular, the Plastic Tides Global Youth Mentor (GYM) Program connects 12-18 year old Youth Leaders with Mentors from around the world, developing year-long projects to create lasting change in their communities.

Read More →

Emily Zimmerman: exposing illegally harvested seafood in traceable supply chains

Posted on by

Virgil Group
June 20-September 16, 2022
Washington, DC, USA

Student will support the development of Virgil Group’s risk analytics software to detect illegally harvested seafood in traceable supply chains. The primary responsibility of this project is the location and characterization of hard-to-find datasets associated with fisheries in international waters or authorized by key market nations. Secondarily, the student may support the development of customer-facing materials to describe SeafoodCheck and attend meetings with internal and external partners. Finally, as availability and capacity permits, student may have the opportunity to conduct policy analysis on seafood traceability regulations in the US and abroad for Virgil Group’s consultancy clients.