Reflecting on a Spectacular 2022 for the Bow Seat Community
December 15, 2022Featured artwork: “Living the High Life” by Shaomin Kee (Georgia, USA)
As 2022 winds down, we want to thank all of the students in the Bow Seat community who contributed their creative skills and energy to advocate for our blue planet. Your artwork, poems, music videos, films, and more inspire us to keep pushing forward in the fight against the climate crisis. We are also so grateful for the supporting adults in our community – from educators and Contest judges to webinar guests and exhibition hosts – who join us in uplifting youth voices and values in our collective pursuit for a healthy future for all.
“Looking back at 2022, we have much to be grateful for here at Bow Seat. One of the things we appreciate the most is our international community of students. Every year, this community of passionate environmental advocates grows bigger, reflecting the reality that young people care deeply about the health of our planet and its people. We love engaging with these students through our various and extensive programming–from webinars and workshops and exhibitions to our Future Blue Youth Council, Fellowship Grant Program, and, of course, our annual award-winning Ocean Awareness Contest.”
– Linda Cabot, Founder & President
2022 Accomplishments
Our 2022 Contest participants made us LOL
The Funny Thing About Climate Change challenged students to use humor, satire, irony, or even positivity to communicate the urgency of the climate crisis. Our participants rose to the challenge and contributed to a unique collection of funny, yet powerful, pieces calling for radical stewardship of our planet.
We awarded over $90,000 in awards to nearly 400 Contest winners, including the We All Rise Prize and Voice of the Sea Award.
We launched our Fellowship Grant Program
Mentored by the Future Blue Youth Council, our Fellowship grantees creatively tackled water-related challenges in their communities through education and public awareness campaigns, large-scale beach cleanups, ocean-based curriculum development, and more.
The Future Blue Youth Council took on new projects
Our second class of Future Blue Youth Council members mentored Fellowship grantees, wrote blogs, created content for our social media, and developed the first-ever Future Blue Magazine.
We showcased students’ original artwork
For the first time ever, we had the opportunity to exhibit original student pieces as part of the Peabody Essex Museum’s Climate + Environment Initiative. Learn More >
In addition, we displayed student art at the Huntsman Marine Science Center, American Repertory Theater, Hopkinton Center for the Arts, Menino Arts Center, Planetary Health Annual Meeting… and in our new interactive online exhibition.
We welcomed new members to the team!
Kris Bowden joined the team as our new Social Media and Brand Engagement Manager, bringing over a decade of creative nonprofit social media and marketing experience. Meet Kris >
Aileen Han joined the team as our summer intern and helped reimagine our online presence by helping us make our webpages greener and more user-friendly. Meet Aileen >
Bow Seat alumnae Cara Fritz and Sydney Cole were selected as our inaugural TikTok interns. Together, they kicked off our TikTok presence, keeping on top of trends, and teaching new audiences about our programming through fun and catchy videos. Meet Cara > Meet Sydney >
We engaged with students face-to-face
We dove into in-person programming headfirst this year, conducting workshops at the Girl Scouts Global Leadership Conference, Massachusetts Marine Educators Annual Meeting, 826 Boston, Horizons at the Dedham Country Day School, Harvard Chan C-CHANGE Youth Summit, North American Association for Environmental Educators Annual Conference, the University of Arizona, Planetary Health Annual Meeting, Youth Ocean Conservation Summit, and more.
Foundations invested in Bow Seat to work towards shared priorities
Bow Seat received a fourth consecutive grant from the Island Foundation and a third consecutive grant from the Horne Family Foundation in support of our shared mission to engage the next generation in actively combatting the climate crisis.
We are proud of the splash that the Bow Seat community made this year. Congratulations on your contributions to this effort. We could not do this without your voices, perspectives, and endless passion.