What did you accomplish with your host organization? What was the impact of your work?

My work this summer with the Inland Ocean Coalition (IOC) focused on developing their Ocean-Friendly Farming (OFF) campaign. I was fortunate to have a lead role in designing the entire campaign, from its mission and priorities to its future impact goals. The initial piece of the campaign was creating a list of Ocean-Friendly Land Practices that highlight conservation and regenerative farming practices that have a positive benefit on watershed or ocean health. After developing the list, my team and I created the values and objectives platform to build the campaign’s future advocacy and educational projects. We then reached out to farmers from multiple states to give constructive criticism on the campaign. These farmers are the first members of our developing Ocean-Friendly Farming community, which endorses farmers across the nation who practice Ocean-Friendly Land Practices. 

The work I’ve been doing with the Inland Ocean Coalition has had a national perspective from the moment we began developing their Watershed Health Program. My recent move from Louisiana to California and a roll call of committee members from Washington, Wyoming, Colorado, Texas, Arizona, and other states truly reflects the IOC’s emphasis on nationwide land-to-sea stewardship.

For my summer fellowship, I am working with the Inland Ocean Coalition (IOC) to develop their Watershed Health Program. As an education and policy-focused advocacy platform, IOC works to build land-to-sea stewardship within inland communities across the nation, showing how they too have a voice in the health and protection of our oceans. The development of the Watershed Health Program will start with projects to create educational content for the public about the importance of watershed health and the implications of poorly protected water resources. The program will then show the public how they can protect their local and national watersheds by participating in creek cleanups and speaking with their representatives to ensure their watersheds’ interests are protected and represented.