Champions of Change Blog

Hawaii Youth Catching the Waves of Change

Jon Brito is being honored as a Next Generation of Conservation Leaders Champion of Change.

I am honored and truly grateful to be recognized as a White House Champion of Change. To be honest it came as a surprise to me because all that I have done is followed my passion of giving back to a community that has provided me with such rich experiences and support.

The summer after I finished high school, I signed up with the Hawaii Youth Conservation Corps (HYCC) as a team member, one of the many environmental opportunities offered by Kupu, an organization that was created to train the next generation of Hawaiian youth to serve as natural resource management, renewable energy, and conservation career professionals. I was inspired by the two team leaders for our Moloka’i crew, who really knew not only how to handle a bunch of high school aged kids, but also understood how to engage us and make something that seemed pretty boring (planting) into something meaningful (learning the Hawaiian names of the plants).

Drawing from my initial HYCC experience, after college I was inspired four years later to become a Team Leader for HYCC on Moloka’i. My team was just like me four years ago: they had an idea where they wanted to go, but were pretty lost and did not know how to find their way. This presented the chance to show them the wonders conservation yields, how fun it can be, and that it could lead to a wealth of job opportunities and a rewarding career. We did hikes in the rain forests of the Kamakou Preserve looking for the elusive and endangered Hawaiian tree snail. We planted kalo in lo’i that our ancestors used for centuries.

I ended an enriching summer and decided on doing an AmeriCorps term with the non-profit Ka Honua Momona. Our main project was to restore 500 year old Native Hawaiian fishponds while incorporating Molokai’s youth in that process. I worked directly with the young adults that came through. They all came from different backgrounds with many different reasons but were all equally enlightening and great people. Many had no idea about the environmental issues that were happening in their own backyards. I tried to show them the danger that places like our reefs and forests were in, and that saving them could be part of the legacy of our generation. It was really cool to see them come back on volunteer days when they didn’t have to be there to help out with restoring the fishponds.

I served another term as an HYCC team leader due to lack of candidates on the island. My second team worked just as hard as the first, and our work ethics were rewarded with a helicopter trip into the remote valley of Pelekunu to do invasive game and plant surveys for The Nature Conservancy.

I think it is important for our youth,especially on Moloka’i, to connect culturally to ‘aina because Hawaiian culture is all about making sure that the resources that are available to you will also be available for future generations. One of things that I have learned in the process is that the work I accomplished with the Hawaii Youth Conservation Corps is happening all across the nation. The Corps Movement and The Corps Network are growing stronger, while young people are serving their communities, the Earth, and improving their own lives. It is also empowering to see some of the members of my previous team not only active but employed with various conservation organizations. I wish nothing but the best for them and am grateful with our shared experiences. I hope to be able to continue empowering youth to accomplish their dreams and to remember the connection that they have with the land.

Ua mau ke ea o ka aina i ka pono

The life of the land is perpetuated in righteousness.

Jon Brito is an alumni of the Hawaii Youth Conservation Corps, a program under the non-profit Kupu dedicated to empowering youth to serve their communities through character building, service-learning, and environmental stewardship opportunities across all 8 Hawaiian islands.

Engaging the Public in Protecting Our Blue Planet

William Spitzer is being honored as a Next Generation of Conservation Leaders Champion of Change.

Recently I watched a documentary on the Apollo 8 mission. The astronauts talked about how it felt to orbit the earth, and see the Earth for the first time as a blue planet — because that is what Earth is. I was very moved to hear these hardboiled pilots and engineers in tears talking about how beautiful the earth looked, and how they missed it when they headed off toward the moon. When you step back and look at the big picture, you realize that it’s the only Earth we’ve got and we need to take good care of it.

How do we help more people see the connections between themselves and the planet we need to protect? At the New England Aquarium we have been working on how to do this, using the power of aquariums, zoos, and nature centers across the country to inspire, educate, and engage the public. We need to use the emotional power of immersive experiences with nature. We need to translate science so that is not only understandable, but also meaningful and actionable. We need to build on what we know about how people communicate and behave, and on what they already know and value.

For example, we need to make effective use of metaphors to explain the science that links causes, impacts, and solutions. Scientists often talk about climate change in terms of the “greenhouse effect” — but most people don’t understand how greenhouses work. Instead, we talk about how burning fossil fuels releases carbon dioxide that forms a heat trapping blanket around the Earth. People intuitively understand that too much blanket makes things too hot. By changing our choice of words, we can help people see what is needed to solve the problem.

There used to be a focus on finding the little things we can do to make a difference. But given the scope of the problems we face, we need to do big things and make a big difference. It’s about acting as a community, realizing our potential as citizens not just consumers. For example, in Boston we have made great improvements in public transportation, a new greenway, bike sharing, bike lanes, ferries and water taxis, all of which help to create a greener and more livable city.

We need to shift the conversation from “doom and gloom” to “hope, innovation, and change.” Studies show that environmental issues can create stress, especially for environmentalists. We have been working to create tools and training to help environmental educators relieve this stress, develop a sense of self-efficacy, and radiate a newfound sense of hopefulness to those around them. It’s like learning to speak a new language, combining the cognitive learning with emotional and social support. When we learn a new language we not only need to learn the verbs and syntax but we need to practice it with and get encouragement from others.

We are working with adult and youth staff from aquariums, zoos, parks, and nature centers from around the country, along with climate scientists and cognitive/social science experts, to create collaborative learning groups that work together for about 100 hours over 6 months. We are building a national learning and support network that will help to transform the culture of communication at more than 150 informal science education centers over the next several years. We believe that we can train enough voices in proven communication techniques to change the national discourse around climate change to be productive, creative and solutions focused.

William Spitzer is Vice President for Programs, Exhibits, and Planning at the New England Aquarium in Boston, Massachusetts. He is Principal Investigator of the NSF-funded National Network for Ocean and Climate Change Interpretation, and the NOAA-funded Visualizing Change projects.p.