By: Naomi, Ashley, Jesse, Colette, Anders, Julia

Sunrise Start

The sunrise signals the start of a new day and a new beginning. We started off our last day by watching the sunrise in everyone’s hometowns. Nothing can bond a group like waking up at 4:45 to watch a sunrise.

Like the sunrise, we learned that while today might be the last day of the program, it’s certainly not the end of the book. Instead, today was the beginning of the next chapter. 

The friendships we have made and the lessons we have learned throughout this program will continue to follow us throughout our time. We can’t wait to see what the six of us accomplish.

Feedback Frenzy

It’s impossible to wrap up an experience like this. Fortunately, Foundry10 lent us a hand in simplifying things.

We shared our feedback, positive and negative, about the program. Using those thoughts, we time-traveled to the year 2025 where we simulated a zoom reunion…

Our imaginations brought us across the galaxy. One of us was busy researching cancer on Mars, another had created a multi-million dollar flipper company, Julia was busy unearthing Spanish medallions in thousand-year-old shipwrecks, and a few were lucky enough to become roommates at the University of British Columbia…

We all shared a good laugh discussing our aspirations. 

Lovely, Long, Legendary, Lengthy, Lavish, Lush, Lasting List

Lunch led us to lists. Reminiscing on our four-week experience, we created a lovely, long, legendary, lengthy, lavish, lush, lasting list of guest speakers, topics, skills, and knots. 

This seemingly meaningless list indicates so much more than one would think. Each event listed shows our growth and development along the way.

Gracious Growth

Throughout the program, we’ve been ever so grateful for the multitude of guest lecturers; however, none of this would have been possible without the support of the Salish Sea Sciences team.

Derek, thank you for keeping the Zoom calls light and fun and directing this program! You have always made sure to keep us engaged. Our off-track conversations have taken us across the world and to the ninth planet. Thank you for your constant encouragement. Many of the things we go on to do following the program, wouldn’t have been possible without you. So we encourage you to continue to change the world. 

Kay, thank you for helping us along the way and teaching us about the wonderful butterflyfish! Your enthusiasm brought the program to a whole new level. You’ve supported us throughout our whole journey, and we can’t thank you enough for helping us grow as a whole. You are an amazing role model and we can’t wait to see you again!

Bea, thank you for showing us we can. Your journey to get where you are now followed so many twists and turns, but you got there. We admire your RESILIENCE and vigor to get where you want to go. We’re all hoping that starting today, we can recreate that in our own lives. Also, thank you for helping us with our independent projects, you helped guide us through our challenges.

Tom, thank you for always being there for us and listening to our suggestions for Salish Sea Sciences. You’re always open to hear our opinions on improvement and trust our judgment. You make us feel like true adults who can do anything we put our minds to. We admire your dedication to helping Morgan Eisenlord with your new program and we thank you for being just as dedicated to us in this program.

Last but most certainly not least, Caroline. Thank you for bringing us all together. You and Tom have created such an amazing, impactful program, and have changed so many lives for the better. Your constant support, advice, and mentorship throughout this program have been incredible and we can not thank you enough.

Thank you. 

This is the Makos and Bottlenose Dolphins, signing off… But not really. 😉