Haley Cahill was our education intern from January to June 2015. She is majoring in Environmental Studies at the University of San Diego and believes the answer to improving many of the threats that our environment faces, starts with education. Haley helped us to bring Project SWELL into San Diego Unified School District classrooms.

“Do you talk about gross stuff?” was the first question I received as I set up my presentation for these elementary school kids. I immediately replied with a “yes” and the 5th grade boy replied with a fist pump and an enthusiastic “Yes!”

I laughed, but I was thrilled to see these kids excited about pollution. As an education intern, I attended Bird Rock Elementary’s inaugural STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math) Discovery Day, to try and ignite a passion for protecting and restoring our water in our next generation of leaders.

I love talking to students, it’s vital to instill in them why we need to care about our environment. Attending allowed me to see that Project SWELL, our water science education curriculum, is making a huge a difference! In each group of of kids, at least a few were already familiar with some of the material I was teaching. They would yell out an answer, or point out that they noticed pollution the last time they were at the beach.

As I looked out at all the faces I asked if anyone had ever been to a beach clean up. I was pleasantly surprised to see that over half had! These kids are already aware that their environment needs to be taken care of if they want to keep it healthy so they can continue to enjoy it as they do now. And the best part? They are excited to do it!

I can’t wait to meet other students as eager to learn as these kids were!