Hosts: Liam Flockhart Ford ’23, Hannah Goldberg ’22, Maira Owais ’23, and Max Spelke ’23
In this episode, Liam ’23, Hannah ‘22, Maira ‘23, and Max ‘23 introduce AC Sustainable Ocean Alliance (SOA)’s segment of the STEMherst podcast. SOA is a club on campus with a focus on raising awareness for ocean-related issues and actively furthering ocean sustainability efforts.
Timestamps:
[0:00] What is the Amherst College Sustainable Ocean Alliance (SOA)?
[0:32] E-board member introductions
[0:48] What do we do on campus?
[1:23] Networking opportunities
[1:36] Plans for Spring 2021
[2:07] About AC SOA’s segment of STEMherst
[2:27] Connect with us on Instagram!
Credits:
Publisher: Amherst STEM Network
Podcasts Coordinator: Julia Zabinska
Music Composer: Grace Geeganage
Cover Art Designer: Chloe Kim + Aditi Nayak
Transcript:
[0:00] What is SOA?
Hey Everyone! We are the Sustainable Ocean Alliance, or SOA. We are a student chapter of the global organization Sustainable Ocean Alliance. We are connected with a network of students, leaders, and professionals who actively work to promote the health and sustainability of the ocean.
[0:32] E-board member introductions
I’m Hannah Goldberg, and I am president of SOA
I’m Liam Flockhart Ford, and I am the social media coordinator.
I’m Max Spelke, and I am a co-treasurer
I’m Maira Owais, and I am a co-treasurer
And we are the sustainable ocean Alliance e-board
[0:48] What do we do on campus?
On campus we focus on planning events and campaigns such as river cleanups and educating our peers. We have a unique opportunity to hold ourselves and our campus accountable for protecting our oceans even if we don’t have an ocean that we can directly observe from a distance on campus.
Last semester we learned more about ocean conservation by going on a club trip to the New England aquarium before we were sent home and also participated in local clean-up events. This semester, we used Zoom to organize club meetings, connect with both on-campus and off-campus members, and hold documentary screenings.
[1:23] Networking opportunities
We also engage with a global network of students, teachers, scientists, and policymakers through a platform called mobilize and have access to webinars, conferences, and events through the global SOA organization.
[1:36] Plans for Spring 2021
Besides the larger networking, we are hoping to do more river cleanups next semester since there are opportunities to clean up the Connecticut river near campus depending on safety. We also plan on holding campus events to engage the community in ocean-focused initiatives and raise awareness for local and national issues.
This engagement is supported by the fact that we are a club with members who have a variety of different majors and familiarity with ocean health; we have both humanities and stem majors involved in the club, which helps facilitate more interdisciplinary conversations.
[2:07] About AC SOA’s segment of STEMherst
In our segment of the STEMherst podcast, we will be interviewing ocean experts working in different fields to learn about the work happening now to further ocean sustainability efforts. We hope that this segment will allow our community to connect over ocean-related interests in this time of disconnect and also help us learn through the process.
[2:27] Connect with us on Instagram!
Thanks for listening and don’t forget to follow @amherst_soa on instagram for updates on what our club is doing.