About This Activity
The Environmental Leadership gap program is for young people (ages 17-22) who wish to explore opportunities in environmentalism that will match their personal interests and ambitions. The program provides a foundation on which an environmental career may be built with a better understanding of how scientists collect, analyze, and report information, how influencers communicate environmental issues effectively, and how successful environmental action is carried out. This 10-week program on Hawaiʻi Island is an opportunity for participants to immerse themselves in environmental issues and solutions and potential environmental careers in science, engineering, policy and law, and resource management. Share a home with the other participants and group leaders, caring for yourselves and for each other. You’ll participate in program activities, individual and group projects, and community service, with plenty of hiking, biking, swimming, snorkeling, stargazing, kayaking, canoeing, paddleboarding, reading, and (optionally) surfing, ziplining, and learning to SCUBA dive. Each week, the program focuses on one of the island’s different ecosystems, from coral reefs to mountaintops, beaches to forests. Field trips take you to each ecosystem to learn about its structure, flora, fauna, environmental threats, and solutions that are being proposed or implemented. Field trips are hands-on: collect and analyze data, conduct biodiversity surveys, record observations. Other field trips will be to assist organizations working on environmental solutions: coral reef or native forest restoration, invasive plant removal, sustainable farming and fishing, and development. As you learn about each ecosystem, you will also look at the policies and laws that are in place that affect that ecosystem, what policies are under consideration, and what specific legislation is being proposed. You will look at what is being done to communicate each ecosystem's challenges. You will discover, discuss,
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