Final Blog

Over the past 12 weeks, my project focused on how I can educate and increase awareness for people to get involved in cleaning up the oceans and preventing more trash from entering the ocean. I sought out a placement at the New York Aquarium as an educator because it’s a good idea to get younger generations inspired as well as current generations. This placement wasn’t a walk in the park, instead it came with a few challenges which I managed to overcome. These challenges included lacking confidence with public speaking, managing my conversations and communicating my ideas to the visitors. However there are many highlights such as being able to work with many animals, having the opportunity to work with marine biologists and conservationists, and learning ways to get involved. I would say that the ways in which I grew through this project included ways such as managing my time well, developing my research skills, communication skills, taking responsibilities under stress in a work environment, and getting through harsh weather conditions while working (e.g. working an education cart and monitoring the sea lions in the outside exhibits while in the rain). This project was pretty challenging but also very rewarding at the same time because I got to learn a lot about conservation and protecting the oceans. Most of all, this project reaffirmed what I want to study in college, marine biology, which is what I’m most passionate about. I’m looking forward to continuing this path throughout and beyond college. These were the highlights and challenges of my project and I hope you do your part in conserving ocean life.