Description

Welcome to National Dialogue 3!

In our previous National Dialogue, our speaker Carlos Drews gave us a thorough presentation on Ocean Wise’s conservation strategy. We believe that understanding the conservation focuses the organization is foundational to Ocean Bridge’s programming and in creating and executing your action projects. Our hope is that these National Dialogues, online discussions as well as your regional Learning Journeys will inspire your action projects.

In this dialogue, we invited a few of our Ocean Bridge alumni to share about their action projects to give you a sense of the diversity of projects that were delivered in the past. This is going to be a panel discussion, so come prepared with some questions for our panelists!

Learning Outcomes

Develop ocean and climate literacy and inspire a culture of service

Participants learn how their action project can tie into the conservation strategy by:

• Developing an understanding of what action projects are and the variety of impactful projects delivered in the past through alumni sharing.
• Becoming inspired by previous successful projects and begin brainstorming and identifying potential opportunities where ambassadors can address conservation areas/ issues that they are passionate about.

Pre-dialogue Action Items

• Read panelist bios below
• Come with some questions for our OB alumni about their action projects

Dialogue Agenda

There will 2 sessions, you are only required to 1 (but you’re welcome to come to as many as you’d like):

• July 6 (Tues) @4-5 pm PT / @7-8 pm ET
• July 8 (Thurs) @1-2pm PT / @4-5 pm ET

5 min – Welcome

12 min – Panelists introduce themselves

20 min – Predetermined question period

15 – Audience Q+A

Synchronous Discussion Dates

Date	PT Time	ET Time	AT Time
Tuesday, July 20th	5:00pm-6:00pm	2:00pm-3:00pm	3:00pm-4:00pm
Wednesday, July 21st	1:00pm-2:00pm	4:00pm-5:00pm	5:00pm-6:00pm
Thursday, July 22nd	2:00pm3:00pm	5:00pm-6:00pm	6:00pm-7:00pm

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Meet our panelists: 

July 6 (Tues) @4-5 pm PT / @7-8 pm ET

Hannah Kosick 

Kwe’/Hello/Bonjour from Hannah Kosick (she/her)! Hannah is from beautiful Unama’ki (Cape Breton), the traditional and unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq people. She was a member of the first Ocean Bridge cohort in 2018 where she developed an ocean-themed challenge in collaboration with Girl Guides of Canada. The goal of the Aquatic Ambassador Challenge is to educate girl guides about aquatic issues in Nova Scotia and beyond and equip them with the skills they need to make waves and have a positive influence on aquatic conservation in their own communities. The challenge consists of ten interdisciplinary activities that highlight topics such as plastic pollution, ocean acidification, species conservation initiatives, and coastal erosion. The challenge was originally produced for the Girl Guides of Canada - Nova Scotia Council, however, it has since been adopted into National Girl Guide programming known as “Girls First”. Therefore, youth members who complete this challenge become one step closer to receiving prominent awards in Guiding such as the Lady Baden-Powell Award, Canada Cord Award, and the Trailblazer Award. Girls who complete the challenge also receive a crest designed by 2018 Ocean Bridge alum Lucy Wilkie!

Hannah recently graduated from Cape Breton University as class valedictorian where she received a Bachelor of Arts and Science in Environment Honours degree. During her final year of her undergrad, she wrote an educational guide on bumble bees in Cape Breton to accompany her honours thesis which focussed on the benefits of using citizen scientists to gather data on species at risk. Bumble Bees of Unama’ki: A Guide to Becoming a Buzzing Naturalist is in many ways an extension of what Hannah worked on for her action project with Ocean Bridge. Science communication and educating youth are two of her greatest passions and she was so excited to use the skills she developed creating the Aquatic Ambassador Challenge to add a unique educational element to her thesis. Since completing the Ocean Bridge Program, Hannah has joined the Girl Guides of Canada Nova Scotia Council as an elected youth representative where she works directly with youth across the province to develop programming for youth, by youth. This fall, Hannah is heading to Memorial University in Newfoundland for a Master of Science in Geography where she will be researching environmental issues facing boreal ecosystems in Cape Breton Highlands National Park.

Cayley Elcombe

Cayley (she/her) was an ambassador for the Ocean Bridge 2020 Atlantic cohort. For her service project she wanted to find a way to connect her local community to the ocean and help people learn about what marine wildlife we share our space with. When the pandemic hit, she was limited in her ability to interact with the public, so she achieved her goal by creating a website called “Know North Shore”, which also features a youth-led art gallery and environmental blog. Her website is still active today with opportunities for current Ocean Bridge ambassadors to support!

Throughout the creation of her action project, Cayley met many amazing people, from fellow ambassadors and folks from the Ocean Bridge staff team. She had the best experience during her ambassadorship and was inspired to continue making a difference by working with young people in conservation. Near the end of her time in the program, an opportunity came up to continue working with Ocean Bridge, so Cayley is now happy to work as a program specialist with Direct Action!

Spencer Chaisson

Spencer Chaisson (he/him) was an ambassador for the 2019 Ocean Bridge Cohort.  Passionate about the wonders of marine zoo plankton, his project aimed to spark curiosity in children about ocean science and the unseen beauty and importance of plankton. For his service project Spencer showcased marine zoo plankton to youth by developing a workshop called “The Secret Life of Plankton”. He engaged with youth in the Greater Vancouver Area in three events – “Take Your Kids to Work Day” for secondary school students, Water Day hosted by the Georgia Strait Alliance, and a workshop at the Vancouver Aquarium with Ocean Bridge’s sister program YouthToSea. These workshops included providing a fun narrative on what plankton are and how they are important for sustaining everyone's favorite marine wildlife from turtles to whales. Spencer was able to provide access to a plankton net and to a microscope attached to a TV to look at real plankton from their local beach through the support of Ocean Wise and NOAA.

Spencer was working at the Vancouver Port authority but is on a year leave working on a MSc in Oceanography at the University of British Columbia where he will be graduating in November. His action project helped him decide the topic for his MSc and allowed him to play with scientific tools to gain the confidence to get a MSc. Spencer is eager to share resources with the current Ocean bridge cohort as there are plankton in every ocean, and so can be done on any coast!

July 8 (Thurs) @1-2pm PT / @4-5 pm ET

Jasveen Brar

Jasveen Brar (she/her) is a youth, climate and ocean educator from the prairies and was an ambassador for the Ocean bridge 2018 cohort. With a passion for education, her action project hosted Oceans Month in collaboration with the Medicine Hat Public Library and the Redcliff Youth Centre where she hosted 20 workshops and presentations around the theme of ocean and waterway health and conservation. Some activities included a microplastics 101 workshop, a river shed cleanup and learning about how the oceans influence us (and us them).

She is currently living and working in the ancestral and unceded homelands of the Mi’kma’ki Wabanaki Confederacy (Halifax, Nova Scotia).  Jasveen is part of the Ocean Bridge staff team as the Atlantic manager. Her other passions include the intersection of storytelling, policy and culture and how youth can better access these spaces. Jasveen’s work has brought her to Antarctica, the Canadian and Greenlandic Arctic and a few places in between. Jasveen has been named a Top 25 under 25 Environmentalist in Canada, A top 30 under 30 Environmental Educator and holds a Medal for Volunteers from the Governor General of Canada.

Laura Newman

Laura Newman (she/her) is an alumni from the Ocean Bridge 2020 St. Lawrence cohort. Laura is from Montreal, Quebec where she grew up and studied communications at Concordia university. For several years, Laura worked at a TV production company that makes educational shows for kids where she would do all kinds of things on set and in the office. She started to feel like something was lacking and around the same time she was accepted into the Canadian Wildlife Federation's Canadian Service Corp program.  She was excited for adventure and spent 5 months volunteering with the Canadian Sea Turtle Network! This is where Laura really developed a love of the ocean. Since then, she has been trying to steer herself in the direction of environmental conservation/education in whatever ways she can and is how she ended up applying for Ocean Bridge. 

For her action project, Laura wrote and performed educational ocean themed songs. Working collaboratively with Ocean Bridge staff member Sam Dimitraki and fellow ambassador Arianne LaBoissonnière, she organized a professionally recorded live stream concert called “Marine Melodies”.  Laura now works for the Youth Media Alliance which is an organization that brings together Canadian creators, broadcasters and producers who are interested in encouraging and facilitating the production of high-quality Canadian-made content for kids. Laura was able to talk about her project during the interview for this job, because it is related to event production and showed that she has an interest in and placed value on content that is educational and kid friendly. This project has given Laura confidence that she can write original songs when she chooses to and is passionate about the topic, rather than relying on inspiration to create. Her experiences have also connected her with some great people who share similar values with her. She is planning on recording her songs and releasing them online and developing this project further in my spare time.  

Kareina D'Souza

Kareina D’souza was an alumnus of the first Ocean Bridge Cohort in 2019. She joined Ocean Bridge as a way to connect with other ocean advocates and develop her leadership skills. For her action project, Kareina was able to run educational events for the public including a “Plogathon” in Vancouver and a youth engagement event in Haida Gwaii.  

She is currently the Sustainability Manager at Dalhousie where she works on student engagement, policy, and planning for sustainability initiatives at the university. As a sustainability manager, she can blend her two passions of Environmental Science and programming. She works with students, staff and faculty to incorporate sustainability into their lives, run events, and help make change at a higher level. Outside of work you can fine Kareina camping, hiking and swimming or hanging out with her dog Darla. 

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Recordings here