Ocean GEMS Danni Washington (right) and teen participant Catherine Orman (center) speaking with director (left) of the Mahonia Na Dari Marine Education Center in Papua New Guinea. Photo: Beth Davidow

Find out with Ocean GEMS, a multimedia series and outreach program that connects the rising generation to marine science role models offering youth a pathway to reach their dream careers.

With support from The Baum Foundation, Ocean GEMS breaks new ground connecting youth to active marine scientists with interactive web-based forums, social media communities, and goal-setting curriculum.

Teens frequently lack mentors who offer guidance and goal setting. As ocean issues become increasingly urgent for the well being of our planet it is imperative to encourage young people to become marine scientists, to make a difference by becoming part of the solutions to affect positive change. Ocean GEMS targets an audience of teenagers, members of the “Generation Z” cohort through digital media platforms.  

Dr. Deni Ramirez and Danni Washington swim with whale shark off the coast of Mexico. Photo: Beth Davidow

Gen Z kids are highly connected, have had lifelong use of communication & media technology and are the most ethnically diverse of any previous generation in the US. Gen Z youth understand digital technology and seek ways to implement it; they want to make a difference, to be part of the story and part of the solution. They want actions and tools to help them along their own paths to being a part of making change happen. Because they were born in, and raised in, a digital world, teens prefer to get their information, make connections, and discover solutions via various forms of digital media, whether it be digital video, digital communication platforms, or online digital searches. Additionally, these youth prefer to seek stories with a human connection that world.

By harnessing the power of mentorship and the use of digital & social media, Ocean GEMS:

• Raises awareness and knowledge of marine science issues,
• Fosters interest in and knowledge of marine science careers,
• Provides interactions with marine scientist role models and mentors,
• Helps youth create a step-by-step path to their career goals, and
• Creates a virtual community for youth interested in the ocean realm.

Ocean GEMS mentors will motivate & empower youth to explore careers in marine sciences by networking with, and being mentored by, marine scientists with whom the students can relate.

Marine Scientist Danni Washington (right) and Catherine Orman exploring coral reefs near the coast of Papua New Guinea. Photo: Tom Campbell

Join the Ocean GEMS team as we travel the world to explore the exciting careers & adventures of remarkable scientists engaged in ocean exploration, spawning engagement with youth not just on the web but also in communities across the United States and Canada.

 Check out the Ocean GEMS videos

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Marine Scientist Danni Washington (right) and Catherine Orman exploring coral reefs near the coast of Papua New Guinea. Photo: Tom Campbell

Ocean GEMS pioneers a new digital forum series set to debut their first Live Hangout November 7, 2014 at the BLUE Ocean Film Festival in St. Petersburg, Florida.  To create an engaging and informative conversation, Ocean GEMS has designed a two-way interactive format that will allow marine science mentors to share their career paths while youth in the audience from the United States and Canada to gather insight about how emerging scientists are working to solve the ocean’s biggest challenges today. The forum includes special Q&A sessions connecting with students from the Aquarium of the Pacific (Long Beach, CA), a rural school in Montana, an inland community in Denver, CO and a middle school class in Guelph, Ontario, Canada.

Dr. Deni Ramirez and Danni Washington swim with whale shark off the coast of Mexico. Photo: Beth Davidow

Many kids dream of being marine scientists, but as they grow older those dreams get left behind because role models and mentors in those careers aren’t readily available or are out of reach.  As the need for solving ocean issues grows increasingly urgent, so is the imperative for young people to become marine scientists.  In a unique live setting at the Blue Ocean Film Festival hundreds of youth in the audience and hundreds more patching in via Google Hangouts On Air will have a chance to discuss their dreams to become a marine scientist with mentors and leading role models. The project was conceived of by Ocean GEMS with a simple goal of connecting youth to role models and mentors using all the tools at hand today including video stories of their mentors, digital outreach, and live events where youth can learn about ways to make good career choices in marine science. Watch the highlights below:

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California Redwoods.

Parks Divide was a documentary photography project raising the public’s awareness about the impending closure of 70 California State Parks due to the lack of State funds. Parks Divide encouraged community outreach efforts to share information about the potential closures and urged action to save the Parks for the public. Its objective was to bring together the many organizations that were working towards keeping State Parks open in their local areas through photo exhibitions and blogs. The ultimate goal of Parks Divide was to motivate the public to get out and enjoy our Park System and give them the support necessary to stay open.

Parks Divide continues to document California State Parks to bring awareness and visibility to this beautiful natural legacy though its ongoing blog at http://70caliparksdivide.blogspot.com/. Please visit it to see the natural wonder of our California State Parks.

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Women Transforming the World.

Eco Amazons brings together the women leading the charge to ensure a healthy and safe environment for all life on earth in a book featuring intimate interviews conducted by journalist Dorka Keehn and arresting images by award winning photographer Colin Finlay. Eco Amazons calls attention to this century’s critical environmental challenges by focusing on the remarkable women developing solutions and guiding us towards a sustainable future. Their efforts demonstrate how individual concern gives rise to passion, how passion leads to action, and how action effects meaningful change – efforts that can be emulated by each and every one of us.

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Protecting Our Last Wild Rivers.

With support from the Baum Foundation, The Patagonian Foundation organized International League of Conservation Photographers (iLCP) to conduct a Rapid Assessment Visual Expedition to expose mass scale dams that are threatening to have long lasting impacts on wildlife and communities of Patagonia 2010.

The work of photographers Jeff Foott, Jack Dakinga, Daniel Beltrá, Bridget Besaw and Filmmaker Edgar Boyles were featured in an exhibition on April 26, 2010, in Rome Italy at the setting of an Enel company shareholder meeting to show the public what will be lost in the Chilean Patagonia, Aisen region. Conglomerates in Italy and Chile are poised to dam, mine, and log this pristine region beginning in 2012.

Wildlife photographers and filmmakers, stunned by the potential loss of this region went to Patagonia to photo document the area. The dam project includes laying down the largest ever constructed and proposed transmission lines directly through the middle of Chile, bisecting it largest stands of untouched native forests. Enel, HidroAysén and Endesa of Chile have steadily been working toward obtaining approval from the Chilean Government to build five dams on the glacier fed Baker and Pascua.

The photographers went to central Patagonia as volunteers to record wildlife, landscape and the communities that will be directly impacted in this pristine and remote region. They traveled for three weeks, over difficult terrain and inclement weather to capture one of the last remaining pristine natural areas in the world. iLCP Photographer Daniel Beltrá says, “Patagonia is one of the last intact wildernesses. I’ve seen this process happening too many times in my work. Big companies arrive with their never fulfilled El Dorado promises. We are scarring the earth for profit. I hope our work in Patagonia will help shine a light on this unsustainable project to stop it.”

Scott Perryman of the Patagonia Foundation said, “Our hope is that these rivers will be designated as protected wilderness held in perpetuity for future generations. The time for large-scale dam projects is past and Chile is in a unique position to engage in the full potential of alternative energy.

The intention of the RAVE project is to educate stakeholders involved in dam projects including business leaders, policymakers, and governments on the importance of preserving these critical environmental resources and to motivate them to consider alternatives to building the dams and proposed transmission lines.

Photographer Jack Dykinga said, “I feel privileged to be in a place so wild and unspoiled. My home is in Arizona where an unthinking public approved a series of dams on the Colorado River. One of the wonders of the world, Glen Canyon, was buried under hundreds of feet of water. Even the most conservative Senator, Barry Goldwater later said, “that if he could undo any decision in his life he would vote against the creation of Glen Canyon dam.”

Learn more about the Patagonian Foundation here.

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Machine in the Garden.

Garden of Forking Path’s Machine in the Garden is an outdoor garden installation exploring how we see and understand nature. Completed in the spring of 2009, it is located at the Oxbow School of Art in Napa Valley, CA, home of celebrated art programs for high school students. The Garden was created as a series of outdoor rooms of increasingly ordered historic garden forms that ultimately lead to a view of undisturbed nature.

Through its design and sculptural elements the Garden fosters a deeper understanding of our place within nature by inspiring visitors to reflect on the historical and cultural forces that shape our concept of a natural environment. Oxbow School of Art faculty have integrated Machine in the Garden into the school’s science, art and literature curriculum using the Garden in a variety of innovative ways to gather people, while also functioning traditional garden.

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Focus the Nation.

During the next ten years, critical decisions will be made regarding global climate change. Focus the Nation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, is working to coordinate teams of students at over a thousand colleges, universities, and K–12 schools throughout the U.S. to engage in a nationwide, interdisciplinary discussion about “Global Warming Solutions for America.”

In 2006, The Baum Foundation provided guidance and support to the launch of a nationwide Internship Program which helped to drive the program across college campuses. The Focus the Nation launch culminated in a national day of action on January 31, 2008 in the form of a discussion with local, state, and federal leaders held at over a thousand campuses, places of worship, businesses, and other venues across the country to discuss global warming solutions. The program continues to thrive in 2012.

Learn more about their program here.

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Mama Hope.

In northern Kenya the HIV/AIDS pandemic has exacerbated the effects of poverty, illiteracy, and frequent drought, leaving many children and adults living with AIDS and in need of homes or adult care. Village women in Kenya have come together to create Community Based Health Clinics to cope with the devastation caused by the AIDS epidemic.

In the village of Isiolo, the organization Pepo La Tumaini Jangwani (translation: Wind of Hope in the Arid or WOHA), is working to reduce HIV/AIDS infection rates, and to promote positive living for HIV/AIDS infected people, especially orphans and abandoned women and children. Recognizing the value of community-based responses to the AIDS epidemic, the Mama Hope Fund was established in 2007, with the full support of The Baum Foundation, to provide funding and resources for WOHA as a pilot project.

With the support of the Mama Hope Fund, WOHA added a laboratory on to its existing community clinic, which serves over 100 patients a day. The Mama Hope Program continues to thrive, visit their site here.

http://youtu.be/jJ5ibq2Lgjg

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Pursuit of Equality.

Pursuit of Equality is an emotionally charged documentary film directed and produced by Geoff Callan and Mike Shaw that puts a face on American citizens who strive for marriage equality.

On February 12, 2004, the city of San Francisco re-ignited the national issue of same-sex marriage by issuing marriage licenses to same-gender couples. Thousands of couples rushed to San Francisco City Hall to be married.

A national political storm ensued over the issue of same-sex marriages; some declared the marriages violated God’s law, and others protested that they contradicted the law of the state of California.

The film focuses on the compelling, human rights struggles surrounding same-sex marriage and captures the elation and despair of couples and families who are fighting for equal rights and the debate continues in 2012.

http://youtu.be/J815YPGNT-8

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Celebrating Sustainable Bounty.

In 2009 The Baum Foundation supported Koolinary, a California initiative whose program focused on raising awareness of the importance of using local and sustainable ingredients in cooking for a healthy lifestyle and environment.

The Baum Foundation supported the establishment of their early operations as an organization into the Northern California sustainable food community. The Koolinary program provided chef training for disadvantaged youth with a specific focus to using sustainably grown foods.

Koolinary conducted workshops for the public to share new and emerging practices for cooking healthy food with organic ingredients showcasing the food of local farmers in Northern California.

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