Empathy Fellowship Archives - Seattle Aquarium

Aquarium fellows reflect on the Empathy Fellowship program’s inaugural year, part 2

Posted on November 23, 2021February 9, 2024 by Emma Leiser

Our new Empathy Fellowship program kicked off last year, and the first cohort has completed their one-year terms! The capstone of these full-time, paid, fully benefited positions is to develop an empathy community action project (ECAP). The fellows research, implement and present on projects in order to apply all that they’ve learned to a real-world, marine-conservation-related issue that impacts themselves and their community. (Interested in applying? Visit our Empathy Fellowship page for details.)

Now our first two fellows offer reflections on their experiences in the program. Below we hear from Astrid Moncaleano with her thoughts. (You can read the first installment by Jules Rader here.)

Part 2 of 2: Empathy Fellow Astrid Moncaleano

It’s incredible to think that a year has passed since I started this journey as a fellow. I couldn’t imagine how I would do this first work experience in the U.S. and the changes it would bring. Fortunately for me, I came to an organization and a team where I always felt welcomed and valued from day one. I found dedicated, gentle, relatable and passionate people; a new work environment; a new way of working with a different management style; new ways of learning; and the freedom and confidence to complete my tasks.

Part of why I consider this a unique experience was that learning from different approaches—through books, documentaries, films, TEDx Talks—gave us a broad spectrum of knowledge about empathy for people and wildlife. It incorporated a better understanding of diversity and inclusion in our work in order to generate transformative changes in our workplaces, communities and society.

For my ECAP topic, I implemented ideas aligned with my professional purpose. The result was the Latinx Empathy Workshop, with the invaluable participation of Aquarium professionals and Latinx professionals as role models, allowing Latinx youth to explore new professional development perspectives in the conservation movement. Creating this space where the professionals shared their personal and professional stories and experiences was an emotional and inspiring moment to empathize and recognize the struggles, challenges and moments of joy of being a professional in conservation. The audience was connected and represented with the storytelling, and presentations broadened their vision on job search, strengths, skills, values, environmental justice and climate action.

I learned from all aspects of the workshop planning. Promoting and putting together a team to achieve the proposed goals is an enriching learning process that makes you grow as a professional, gain confidence, acquire new skills and empower you to generate better ideas.

*(English translation below.) En mi interminable lista de cosas por las que agradezco al Programa de becas Empathy (EFP) está la oportunidad de trabajar generando contenido bilingüe. Logre incorporar contenido en español e inglés en el taller y colaboré en la traducción al español de materiales de divulgación utilizados en diferentes programas como Cedar River Salmon Journey y Beach Naturalists. Participar en la interpretación del tour virtual en español fue también una experiencia de satisfacción que me ayudó a formarme en nuevas habilidades y pensar en nuevos horizontes profesionales. Es muy satisfactorio creer que estos materiales servirán a nuestros públicos y comunidades y se convertirán en valiosas herramientas de trabajo en diferentes actividades y programas dentro del acuario, logrando la educación en conservación más inclusiva.

Thanks to the fellowship, I feel that I’ve become a more empathetic person, more confident of my skills and able to face new challenges, and I better understand how workplaces function in the U.S. and how I can adapt myself to this culture. I see future possibilities for working with professionals of diverse cultural origins and with other organizations, creating spaces with different purposes of empathy for people and marine life, building community, exchanging experiences and connecting with multicultural audiences. I hope many professionals like me will receive this opportunity to enrich their work environment with the new perspectives that migrants bring wherever we go.

*(I’m grateful to the Empathy Fellowship for an endless list of reasons, and among them is the opportunity to create bilingual content. I incorporated Spanish and English content into the workshop and collaborated on the Spanish translations of outreach materials for programs like the Cedar River Salmon Journey and Beach Naturalist. Participating in virtual tours as a Spanish interpreter was also a satisfying experience that helped me develop new abilities and expand my professional horizons. It’s very satisfying to think that those materials will serve the public and community and become valuable tools in different activities and programs within the Aquarium, achieving higher inclusivity of conservation education.)

Aquarium fellows reflect on the Empathy Fellowship program’s inaugural year, part 1

Posted on November 22, 2021February 9, 2024 by Emma Leiser

Now our first two fellows offer reflections on their experiences in the program. Below we hear from Jules Rader with their thoughts. (You can read the second installment by Astrid Moncaleano here.)

Part 1 of 2: Empathy Fellow Jules Rader

As this fellowship comes to an end, I can honestly and gratefully say I am sad to leave. I learned so much and am leaving the position with an even stronger conviction that empathy and equity must always lead my approach to conservation work.

My ECAP was an eight-week digital program called “The Aqueerium: a marine conservation club for LGBTQ+ youth.” Twenty-three LGBTQIA+ youth (ages 13–17) joined from across the U.S. to participate. We also had six wonderful volunteer mentors from the LGBTQIA+ community helping in the program.
The main goals of my ECAP were to:

Create a supportive, affirming community space for LGBTQIA+ youth at the Aquarium, so they feel welcome and safe and can see themselves represented in marine science and conservation.
Empower LGBTQ+ youth to feel they can pursue a career or continue to advocate for marine conservation and be their full self in this space—seen and respected for who they are.
Inspire empathy for marine invertebrates, specifically by feeling connected to nudibranchs. Use empathy as a tool for conservation.
Encourage LGBTQ+ youth to advocate for animals and the environment, and subsequently feel empowered to advocate for themselves, others and their communities.

I set out to create this program because I found my community in LGBTQIA+ activist spaces and wanted to foster a space that would engage with and uplift LGBTQIA+ youth and also make learning and science fun and approachable! I left STEM because I did not feel celebrated, seen or represented by my science teachers, and I didn’t see social justice and equity being prioritized. In this program, I hoped to empower young people to pursue their interests and hear from many different LGBTQIA+ folks in conservation.

During the first meeting we came up with community guidelines—an important way to set the tone for creating an inclusive and welcoming space together.

Over the following three weeks we split into groups, each choosing a nudibranch mascot to research and present to the rest of the Aqueerium. (A key takeaway was the importance of relationship-building and designing a program with specific community and participant needs in mind, as well as being open to learning from our participants and working together. With ongoing feedback from anonymous surveys after each meeting, we could make changes and improve the program as we went along.)

On the fifth week, we hosted a virtual panel, LGBTQ+ in Conservation, featuring five panelists and 38 attendees—including Aqueerium participants and mentors, Aquarium staff, and young LGBTQIA+ folks interested in conservation. In addition to communicating and building understanding with panelists beforehand, a key part of showing our respect for them was providing fair and equitable compensation for their time and work. We received very positive feedback from our panelists, who recognized the Aqueerium space as welcoming and healing. One panelist even commented that they wished a club like the Aqueerium had existed when they were young. That is exactly why this project felt important.

The feedback we got from an anonymous survey at the end of the program showed that this really was a welcoming and inclusive space, and that the program met everyone’s expectations for what they hoped to learn. We found:

Half of the participants had never participated in an aquarium or conservation program before.
Half had never joined a group for LGBTQIA+ youth before.
Half had not found other opportunities to connect with the LGBTQIA+ youth community over a shared interest (such as marine conservation, activism, art, etc.)

Clearly, these kinds of programs are still hard to come by, and that is exactly why we need more of them. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to work on something so important to me, and so needed in an infinitely difficult time, when many LGBTQIA+ young people have been isolated from one another. I leave this fellowship eager to continue working in conservation education, and certain of the urgent necessity of centering empathy and equity in this field.