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.”

Carter Neil-Dobbs

Houston, Texas

Carter partnered with the Biology Club, Ocean Bowl team, and Sustainability Club at his high school to host an event focused on ocean conservation and marine species called Everyday Ocean Heroes. Students created and presented short talks on their favorite ocean animals and their environmental impact. Topics included orcas, coral reefs, bottlenose dolphins, blue crabs, algae, and a couple others. There were eight speakers and 30 attendees. Now at Texas A&M Galveston, he continued this momentum by joining the Save Our Seas organization. He helped organize and volunteer for a beach cleanup in Galveston, Texas, which reached approximately 80 participants.

Carter says: “It was a rewarding opportunity to take direct action in preserving the marine environment and led to the club having a presentation night focused on different environmental threats to the ocean and what we can do to help.”