Team Marine receives commendation from Samo mayor
Team Marine, an environmental advocacy organization at Samo, received a commendation from the Santa Monica mayor, Kevin McKeown, and city council for winning the International Creative Advocacy Marine Debris Bow Seat competition in November 2019. This competition had focused on a project that team marine had made to educate the community on marine debris or litter in the ocean. Therefore the commendation was awarded to the team for creating a project to redirect environmental issues. The team presented a project that consisted of a giant plastic water bottle made up of smaller plastic water bottles to highlight the issue of the plastic pollution crisis. Team marine had presented this to Samo’s freshman seminar classes and started a petition to the community to reduce plastic pollution. Team Marine advisor Ben Kay is impressed by the students’ accomplishment on winning the competition and with how they are represented as leaders. “I am proud of the team marine students, as they are slowly shifting the paradigm in the community to get on board with a circular economy and to shift away from a linear economy. I see them as building informed voters and citizens to make better decisions,” Kay said. However, due to the circumstances of the coronavirus, the team has not picked up the commendation yet. Despite this, they are still working on spreading awareness of environmental issues. Ansel Garcia-Langley (‘20), the leader of Team Marine, has also taken action on COVID-19. “After the competition, we started to participate in educational campaigns. But, I have been spearheading the Coronavirus pandemic response awareness by creating materials so people are aware of proper response. It has taught me that Team Marine advocacy should move into a world of online resources,” Langley said. This commendation shows the team's contribution to the community and at Samo. Team Marine has influenced many people with their project and will continue to spread awareness on environmental issues.