Blog

Earlier this year, Seattle Aquarium Marine Science Interpreter Lindsay Holladay was awarded a grant through the Women Divers Hall of Fame (WDHOF) to teach 10 weeks of marine science illustration to local high school students. 

Seattle Aquarium volunteer and artist Kait Rhoads is leading the creation of a glass jellyfish sculpture to be installed in the Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium’s (PDZA’s) new Pacific Seas Aquarium, which is slated to open next summer.

Lyra Dalton is an avid beachcomber, marine adventurer and cephalopod enthusiast who has been working at the Seattle Aquarium as a youth engagement mentor and community science instructor for the past year, as well as doing educational programming and youth engagement at Woodland Park Zoo. 

The Seattle Youth Climate Action Network (CAN), a partnership between the youth programs at the Seattle Aquarium, Woodland Park Zoo and Pacific Science Center, recently wrapped up its first year of programming by sending three youth, including the Aquarium's own Youth Ocean Advocate Sahayra Barojas, to the Adirondack Youth Climate Summit in upstate New York to present on the foundation of Youth CAN and to learn about hosting a summit from a well-established program.

On January 31, eight high school volunteers from the Seattle Aquarium’s Youth Ocean Advocates program joined teens from Woodland Park Zoo and Pacific Science Center to plant 150 trees, 30 shrubs and 30 understory plants along the Burke Gilman trail.

We asked one of our recently graduated youth volunteers, Molly Kamicar, to write about her experience in the Seattle Aquarium’s Youth Ocean Advocate program. In just over a year, Molly gave over 500 hours of outstanding service to our mission, Inspiring Conservation of Our Marine Environment. Her thoughts are below.

Last summer, youth volunteers raised $9,146.99 through donations at their face-painting station. In the past, money raised from the station has been utilized to fund field trips and recognition efforts for youth volunteers. But this year, to educate our young volunteers and position them as Ocean Advocates, $5,000 of that money was set aside to be given away to five organizations that share the Aquarium's mission.

Some of our proudest moments at the Seattle Aquarium occur when we see students working to fulfill our mission of Inspiring Conservation of Our Marine Environment. In a particularly impressive example of this, a group of Suquamish Tribe students from Chief Kitsap Academy recently traveled to Washington, D.C. to speak at the national level as part of the Coastal America Partnership’s 4th National Student Summit on Oceans and Coasts.