Mystic Seaport Museum and Project Oceanology are pleased to announce that a diverse team of experts from across the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) will visit two of their youth programs this week for hands on talks with a goal of sparking interest in NOAA and related ocean careers.
On Wednesday, July 31, the NOAA team will visit Mystic Seaport Museum to meet with high school students who are taking part in a summer youth employment component of the Museum’s Maritime Adventure Program, which engages under-resourced high school youth in experiential maritime education anchored in positive youth development to help them enhance their social, emotional, and leadership skills. On Thursday, August 1, NOAA experts will visit with summer day campers in grades 4-6 and high school residential campers at Project Oceanology, a nonprofit education and research facility based in Groton, Connecticut.
Among the experts will be NOAA weather forecasters, deep ocean explorers, aquaculture and fisheries scientists, whale acoustic specialists, navigators, a NOAA Corps officer, a professional mariner recruiter with NOAA’s Office of Marine and Aviation Operations and representatives from the NOAA Ocean Exploration Cooperative Institute at the University of Rhode Island. The experts will discuss their career paths while also learning about the students’ maritime projects. NOAA will bring a navigation response vessel to Mystic Seaport Museum and to Project Oceanology for students to tour. This initiative follows an earlier visit to Mystic Seaport Museum by NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad, Ph.D., and is part of ongoing efforts to enhance educational opportunities for youth in the region.
“We are excited to bring a diverse team of NOAA scientists to Mystic Seaport Museum and Project Oceanology to meet with students from southeastern Connecticut,” said Nicole Bartlett, NOAA’s regional coordinator for the North Atlantic Regional Collaboration Team. “The more we can work with young people from diverse backgrounds the more likely we are to create a stronger talent pipeline to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, our nation’s source of weather, climate, ocean, coastal and fisheries data and services.”
“Welcoming the team from NOAA to Mystic Seaport Museum to provide our students with this unique opportunity to engage directly with experts in ocean sciences and maritime careers is exciting and we’re thrilled to welcome their team to the Museum,” said Sarah Cahill, Director of Education at Mystic Seaport Museum. “This collaboration not only enriches our Maritime Adventure Program, but we hope this experience will spark a lifelong interest in these vital areas and open doors to future opportunities in NOAA and related fields.”
Callie Scheetz, Director of Curriculum and Instruction, Project Oceanology adds, “We’re thrilled to have a talented and diverse group of NOAA staff to share their firsthand work experiences with our summer campers. By integrating NOAA expertise into Project Oceanology’s hands-on camp experiences, we empower our campers to envision and pursue career possibilities in STEM.”
