Showcasing Leaders of the NOAA Ocean Guardian Youth Ambassadors

Natalie Conran & Ally Good

St. Louis, Missouri

Natalie and Ally created an event called Night at the Aquarium to broaden awareness of the importance of the ocean for all life. Twenty 10th-12th grade students learned about ocean-related topics from St. Louis Aquarium experts, they created a presentation on a topic of interest, and presented their work at the aquarium gala event. Night at the Aquarium’s mission is to get high school students involved in ocean-related studies and conservation, despite having no direct access to the ocean, as we are all connected to the ocean no matter where you live. This program teaches concrete actions St. Louisans can take to improve ocean health.

Leonardo Lin

Irvine, California

Leonardo wrote and illustrated a book titled “Reef Rescue” about coral reefs, the problems facing corals, and how we can save coral reef ecosystems. He has dedicated the proceeds of his book to the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation and has already donated $246. The first book that Leonardo wrote was titled “World of Sharks”.

Ellen Rikhof

Seattle, Washington

Ellen created a festival that celebrated deep-sea environments and ocean conservation that brought together community members, scientists, and ocean enthusiasts for a free, all-ages event intended to inspire action to protect this vital habitat. The Deep-Sea Conservation Festival featured informational booths, crafts, music, food, guest speakers, and advocacy opportunities. This event brought together over 600 people to learn about the deep ocean and its relevance in our daily lives.

Ellen says: “This experience has motivated me to become more involved in the world of deep sea/ocean research and conservation.”

Siyeon Joo

Lafayette, Louisiana

As president of her school’s Eco Club, Siyeon led several sustainability initiatives that combined environmental action with her community’s cultural traditions. During Halloween, she launched a Halloween Costume Upcycle campaign to raise awareness about the environmental impact of clothing waste—particularly how much water and textile waste is involved in producing costumes. Throughout Halloweekend and the following week, students, faculty, and staff from both middle and upper school donated old costume pieces and props to be reused and repurposed by others. The campaign was so successful that during Mardi Gras season, she expanded this idea with a costume upcycle contest and her annual bead drive, aimed at reducing the volume of plastic beads and costume waste ending up in South Louisiana landfills.

Siyeon says: “When I first encountered the NOAA Ocean Guardian Youth Ambassador program, I lacked confidence in my leadership, advocacy, and organizational abilities. However, this program equipped me with the skills to lead impactful initiatives, foster meaningful partnerships with external organizations, and effectively amplify my commitment to protecting Louisiana’s natural ecosystems.”

Hayden Almeraz

New York, New York

Art for Oceans is a global youth art exhibit grounded in Hayden’s belief that storytelling and art can change the world. Over the course of many months, he curated 25 global pieces of art from seven countries around the world that he felt were most engaging and impactful towards the cause of ocean conservation. The show ran for two weeks and $500 in proceeds were donated to the Institute of Ecological Research in Puerto Rico, towards their work in coral reef restoration. Art for Oceans was also selected for the Wild Geese Gallery 2023–2024 Impact Award!

Hayden says “Being a part of the NOAA Ocean Guardian Youth Ambassador Program has been a meaningful experience. It was wonderful to be connected with a community of youth who share my passion for the ocean and ocean conservation.”

Maya Kimura

Honolulu, Hawaii

Maya was inspired to organize and facilitate a sustainability fair for her school, which included students from preschool to eighth grade. She kicked off her event by inviting Hawaiian navigator Nainoa Thompson to speak to her campus community. To create a rich environment of learning at the sustainability fair, Maya invited exhibitors including NOAA, University of Hawai`i, nonprofits like KUPU and Audubon Society, and state, city, and county offices. Students enjoyed making Genki Balls, creating paper solar circuits, observing efficient energy windmills, learning to plant and care for native Hawaiian plants, seeing how edible spoons can be made, composting with worms, conducting water testing art, and learning about ancient Hawaiian sustainable practices.

Bleakley Shettle

Tallahassee, Florida

Painting the Solution was a community-based project created by Bleakley, with the goal of spreading climate awareness while simultaneously bringing color to local parks, by painting and hiding rocks with awareness messages around her community's green spaces. Her project commenced in two main phases; painting of the rocks, then dispersing them. For the first phase, she ran an activity at a local festival where kids could learn about changes in environmental and ocean conditions with colorful infographics, and paint rocks with messages promoting environmental stewardship and climate literacy. She also hosted an event at her school with the Green Club to paint even more rocks. Later, she distributed over 200 rocks around local parks.

Ana Lucía Pérez Escalera

Salinas, Puerto Rico

The mission of Ana Lucía’s organization De a Pokito por Puerto Rico is to educate about caring for the environment to eradicate improper trash management and prevent it from reaching the ocean. Her aim is to ensure that everyone understands the importance of reusing, recycling, and reducing waste. Her organization promotes careers in science, technology, engineering, art, and math (STEAM), and some of the activities she organized included: a segment on a local TV program, presentations at schools, camps, festivals, community events, and educational fairs, beach cleanups, hackathons, along with a traditional and social media campaign. One of her art projects won the Bow Seat Ocean Awareness Contest’s Silver Award in the Film Category with the film “Little by Little”. Her organization has reached over 100,000 people so far as of 2025.

Ana Lucía says: “The NOAA Ocean Guardian Youth Ambassador Program helped me better understand the problems facing our ocean and learn about solutions that can help their conservation. I was also able to stay in touch with other young people who, like me, are interested in helping to raise awareness through their projects.”

Emily Ma

Foster City, California

Emily’s project, Pickle Puzzles, collects old and broken pickleballs (which most recycling centers can't process), shreds, and melts them into new items so they don’t end up in landfills or in the ocean. In collaboration with Peninsula Precious Plastics, she has turned pickleballs into fun items like tangrams puzzles! She is also working with a student at the University of San Francisco to create cutting mats for the school's art department. So far, Emily’s project has diverted over 1,500 pickleballs from becoming waste.

Ireene Otunnu

Marlton, New Jersey

Ireene wrote two ocean conservation articles that were published in her school’s digital newspaper, “The Cherokee Scout”. These articles discussed some of the environmental challenges that affect the world’s ocean, as well as simple steps we can take to mitigate some of these problems. Her first article, which detailed ocean plastic pollution, explained the ruinous effects of undisposed plastic on marine environments. She included interactive ways that people can utilize old trash, such as upcycling, and actively encouraged readers to make differences in their communities. Her second article focused on harmful algal blooms. Her goal was to inform new readers about issues in marine environments, while encouraging them to do their part in our fight for a cleaner, healthier, climate.

Malea Stassi

Redondo Beach, California

Malea’s project was the installation of composting and recycling bins on her school campus. She also provided an educational presentation to all 3,000 students at her school that explained how to use the bins properly, and explained some of the harmful effects of overfilling landfills and how sorting our waste can reduce these effects. This project was also featured on her school TV channel, sent out via email to all parents, and in her school newspaper to ensure it reached a large audience. Malea collaborated with her principal, AP environmental science teachers, and a variety of other staff on this project. Now she is pushing to get even more composting bins on her campus, and has applied for the Wayfinder Society grant to help get combined bins with different sections for a variety of waste. Her school has now become a NOAA Ocean Guardian school as well.

Malea says: "The NOAA Ocean Guardian program has equipped me with the resources and connections to lead a successful project that improved my local environment. I now have the ability to talk with adults confidently and will continue to advocate for our ocean."

Ace Poyah

Frederiksted, Virgin Islands

The Sandy Point National Wildlife Refuge on St. Croix is a protected area known for being a nesting ground for leatherback, green, and hawksbill sea turtles. Wanting to support its mission, Ace organized a service project through the St. Croix Educational Complex’s National Math Honors Society to help plant over 30 native tree saplings—like mauby and red torch—at the refuge. He orchestrated over 20 students and staff and ensured that they learned how to dig and plant properly in the protected soil. Everyone had a great time learning about the history of the location, the importance of Sandy Point, as well as working together, laughing, and bonding while doing something good for their island’s environment.

Gabriela Dyogi

Pacifica, California

As the founder and president of the Women in STEM club at her school. Gabriela saw the perfect opportunity to teach ocean conservation to students aged 4–18 at various schools in her town, since her local beach is one of the top 10 most polluted beaches in California. In the smaller classrooms, she and her other club members presented about ocean acidification and included a hands-on experiment. In the bigger classrooms, they presented on effective ways of recycling and composting, various ways to clean up beaches or local environments, and other ocean conservation ideas. Overall, Gabriela and her team reached over 590 people, and the project was featured in her school newspaper and is being recognized by the county. Her team continues to hold monthly beach and creek cleanups and attend district and city council meetings to continue their work in conservation.

Gabriela says: “The NOAA Ocean Guardian Youth Ambassador Program gave me the knowledge and resources I needed to help environmental issues in my community. Without NOAA, I would likely not have the confidence to do my project.”

Madeline Katz

Deerfield, Illinois

Invasive Insights is a podcast that educates the public about one of the major issues facing our underwater ecosystems, invasive species. Maddy has brought together a variety of knowledgeable experts in the field of invasive ecology to share their experiences and expertise. These podcast episodes cover the common invasion vectors, ways to mitigate the harms of invasive species, and about what research is currently being done to improve the knowledge and effectiveness of the field of invasive ecology. Her podcast has been viewed by more than 1,000 people so far, so it has certainly had an impact on how knowledgeable people are about invasive species.

Maddy says: “The NOAA Ocean Guardian Youth Ambassador Program has the opportunity to make friends with similarly focused peers who have a wide range of worldviews. I feel like I learned so much during my time as a youth ambassador, and a ton of that learning was from other youth ambassadors! I loved seeing the kinds of projects that different people chose, especially if it exposed me to a new kind of effort to help the underwater environment. Everyone was so kind and welcoming, and we were all willing to offer each other a helping hand. I became a youth ambassador to help the environment, and I was so happy to be able to befriend so many people that shared this goal.”

Talon King-Hemby

Largo, Florida

Talon's project was centered around educating young people on the Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle principle to address plastic pollution concerns. Talon presented her project to her school's Pre-K class on Earth Day. She created a slide show and presented facts about ocean conservation. She also made a packet with activities for the students surrounding the three R's, a beach cleanup counting activity, an Earth coloring sheet, and information on sea turtle hatchings. She also gave the students the opportunity to create a fish craft out of a water bottle and confetti to demonstrate the act of repurposing materials. The students were very engaged and Talon's outreach project was later featured in her school's marine science newsletter.

Summer Sprague

Tuckerton, New Jersey

Summer performed a study examining the effects of two substrates—Portland cement and oyster shell—on the growth and survival of, Pachyclavularia violacea, corals. Coral fragments were attached to these substrates and monitored for growth and health over a two-month period. The findings suggest that oyster shell substrates are more conducive to coral health and may be a more effective material for coral restoration projects. Summer presented her project to researchers and the public at a research symposium and answered questions.

Gavin Luengthada

New York, New York

Gavin's passion for engineering inspired him to try to build a low-cost vehicle that he could use to monitor water quality in his community. After some preliminary research, he independently built a SeaPerch remotely operated vehicle (ROV), obtained a GoSense marine sensor to beta test, and partnered with a local nonprofit organization that monitors water quality in the Bronx River using manual water collection and testing methods. To date, Gavin has taken a number of readings in the Bronx River and compared his data with that obtained by the apprentices of his partner organization. He continues to take data, and once completed, he hopes to publish his results in a scientific journal to raise awareness to a larger audience on how ROVs can help monitor and potentially mitigate changing ocean conditions in smaller waterways.

Jasmine Wang-Jethi

Pleasanton, California

Jasmine Wang-Jethi founded the small business Loop Dee Loop where she crocheted a variety of marine animals, such as sea turtles, jellies, and otters. She then researched and designed educational tags that explain how changing ocean conditions are impacting each species and how people can help them. Jasmine sold the animals online and at in-person craft markets. Through feedback from customers and event attendees, she refined the tags to be more engaging and especially effective for younger audiences. Over 50 animals were sold, and 10% of the profits were donated to marine conservation organizations!

Ava Havidic

Tamarac, Florida

Ava is involved in SEAS Connections, which is an initiative advancing environmental sustainability in coastal communities connected to the cruise industry. Through sustainability, education and outreach, and service, she is part of a network of over 2,000 volunteers across over 65 countries with engagement spanning five cruise lines. SEAS Connections has created global impact through 217 educational workshops reaching more than 250,000 students, 149 coastal cleanups at Florida ports, and 12 microgrants supporting frontline communities and Title I schools leading grassroots environmental initiatives. As the first youth-led organization addressing sustainability within the travel industry from this perspective, SEAS Connections facilitates “port conversations” that bring together residents, employees, travelers, professionals, and youth to foster shared understanding, environmental responsibility, and public service. By reimagining how travel can positively impact both people and the planet, SEAS Connections is building the next generation of global environmental leaders.

Aleah Trojan

Minnetonka, Minnesota

Aleah designed and created educational pamphlets on the prevention of quagga mussels, an invasive freshwater species, including effects, prevention, and outreach opportunities. She formed a 10-minute presentation at her local town hall meeting in Remer, Minnesota, on how the public can help combat this invasive species, with a turnout of about 60 members. Additional pamphlets were distributed to people in future meetings, and spread to the town's Facebook page in order to ensure the word continues to get out about combatting this invasive species.

Ellery Halabisky

Dover, Massachusetts

Ellery Halabisky created a short stop motion titled "My Dear Fox" as a commentary on the impact of waste on wildlife. "My Dear Fox" follows a fox character who finds himself on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. In the short story, the fox learns lessons such as having empathy for animals impacted by pollution. The fox is meant to represent humanity, to demonstrate that although issues facing our environment may not seem to be urgent at the moment, we must act now. To further spotlight the sentiment in the video, every puppet and background was constructed using trash collected around the Charles River. The short has been posted on various social media platforms in an effort to reach a larger audience. Ellery is in the process of continuing the journey of "My Dear Fox".