By Naomi, Ashley, and Jesse

Alone but Together

If we were to sum up today in one word it would be productive! We spent our 8 hours following a detailed schedule; something we haven’t done since the beginning of the program. There was work to be done!

From monitoring dolphins to designing t-shirts, everyone had something to do. Even while we worked on our projects individually, we were all connected through our usual Zoom room (a.k.a our second home). Through the main room, breakout rooms, and chats, our unity kept us motivated!

Engaging with the Public – Always Advancing Awareness

Today, Tom met with us in response to our email pitch for our new podcast-art engagement project. The new tab was a go! We all searched up the Salish Sea Sciences website as fast as possible to view the new update. The new outreach tab will take visitors to a webpage on which they can view informative blogs, podcasts, and artwork. We can’t wait to upload even more work. Stay tuned for more factual figures!

Ever since Derek received the exciting news that Dr. Daniel Pauly, a celebrity in the world of fishery studies, would be joining us for a Zoom discussion tomorrow, we have been inspired. Dreaming big, we’ve brainstormed other famous figures to invite to our Zoom meetings. If Dr. Daniel Pauly will come and talk to us, who’s to say Sylvia Earle – a scuba diving star – won’t! 

With high hopes, we have emailed other inspirational individuals such as Al Gore, Angela Sun, Hank & John Green, and Leonardo DiCaprio. We eagerly await their responses! Even if one of our idols is able to join us, it will be the opportunity of a lifetime.

Engaging with the Private – Investigating Individual Ideas

Focusing more on our personal projects, we each took 15 minutes with Kay & Derek to discuss logistics and potential ideas that would spur our experiments. After researching and collecting data, we all had our share of tedious work. Despite the tasks, the outcomes were truly rewarding as we all made great headway (whether it was starting to analyze data or designing a pillbug container).

Though we may all be conducting our research separately, there still remains what could possibly be the most important aspect of this program: the t-shirt. Throughout the program, some of the best artists of the group have been submitting t-shirt designs. Today was the day to decide which design we would use! Once the shirts arrive, Derek will screen-print the design onto the garment along with the names of the students in the program and the Salish Sea Sciences logo.

While it’s possible that we may never be in the physical company of one another, (which we hope isn’t true) these shirts will remind us of the ties (and knots) that we made in this program.

As the program end date starts to creep up on us, we have discussed ways to keep in touch with each other after this amazing experience ends. We agreed to update each other on our future endeavors and to never be afraid to reach out for support.