Make people aware of the beauty of our oceans and thereby change their behaviour to make sure our oceans will stay beautiful and healthy. That is the reason why I study Coastal and marine management in the Netherlands and why I did my internship at STCC.
My main goal was to educate 3000 kids about sea turtles, plastic pollution and recycling, in 3 months. This project was in collaboration with Green Phenix who have 3D printers and a bike that can shred the plastic. I took the printer and the bike shredder to my presentations to show the kids the recycling/upcycling process from plastic bottle to a new product. I educated kids from 4 years old to young adults of 19 years old and in total there were more than 3000 kids educated, so my mission was accomplished! Every time it felt amazing to stand in front of a group and tell about the things I find the most important and see the interested and curious faces. The best presentations were the ones where the kids are bored at first (you will know, because kids say everything), but are the most excited at the end of my presentation. It gives hope to see how serious these kids take the problem from plastic pollution and that they really want to help keep our oceans beautiful and healthy.
Education was not the only thing I did. I also had the amazing opportunity to be part of a few turtle rescues en releases. I learned so much about the turtles, monitoring and rescues from Ard, Sabine and all the volunteers.
All the people from STCC are so dedicated and it is amazing to learn and work together with them. I had 3 amazing months which I will never forget. It is a highly recommended internship 🙂
By Eva Ortelee
