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NOAA Support of DOC’s 2024 National Youth Summit

Article Provided By ORTA Team

Figure 1: NOAA OAR staff (Left-to-Right: Andrew Peck (ORTA), Normandy Carter (ORTA), Juan Hurtado (OEd), Alfonso Macias Tapia (OEd), Kayla Smith (OEd), Kayla Poole (OEd), Kenneth Vierra with Ember (ORTA)) participate in the Department of Commerce’s 2023 National Youth Summit. (Photo Credit: NOAA).

On June 18, 2024, between 250-300 students and staff attended the 2024 National Youth Summit hosted by the Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships within the Department of Commerce (DOC). The event was held at the Herbert Clark Hoover Building (HCHB) in downtown Washington, D.C. The purpose of the event was to empower and uplift our nation’s youth between the ages of 12 and 30, and consisted of workshops on topics such as entrepreneurship, leadership, and climate resilience. The event also provided attendees with the opportunity to engage with senior leadership from DOC and learn more about the ongoing work of different federal agencies. Following the presentations, the participants were able to talk one-on-one with NOAA staff members about their aspirations and career interests. 

Figure 2: NOAA Staff front left-to-right Blake Price (NMFS), Jeff Gearhart (NMFS), Ember (ORTA), Kayla Poole (OEd), Kayla Smith (OEd), Kenneth Vierra (ORTA); back row left-to-right Tamara Josifovic (USEC/PCA), Juan Hurtado (OEd), Alfonso Macias Tapia (OEd), Andrew Peck (ORTA), Normandy Carter (ORTA), Alfonso Macias Tapia (OEd), participates in the Department of Commerce’s 2024 National Youth Summit. (Photo Credit: NOAA).

OAR Office of Research, Transition, and Application (ORTA) worked with the Office of Education (OEd) to organize NOAA’s participation.  ORTA also reached out to colleagues at the Southeast Fisheries Science Center (SEFSC) (Jeff Gearhart and Blake Price, Research Fisheries Biologists) to provide a demonstration and discussion on Turtle Excluder Devices (TEDs) (Figures 3 and 4). TEDs have been required in all southeastern United States shrimp trawls since 1992. Jeff indicated that TED use in the shrimp fishery has allowed the industry to operate without severe restrictions, while saving countless sea turtles.

Figure 3: Blake Price and Jeff Gearhart (NOAA/SEFSC) (Photo Credit: NOAA) 

Figure 4: (Left) Jeff Gearhart and Blake Price discussing and demonstrating the TED unit with a student; (Right) Jeff Gearhart showing Ember the turtle  (Photo Credit: NOAA). More information on TEDs can be found at NOAA Fisheries SEFSC Turtle Excluder Devices.

Students from all corners of the country attended the DOC 2024 Youth Summit.  In addition to several learning opportunities, they met NOAA’s Canine Ambassador Ember, a Keeshond working K-9 Caring Angels Therapy Dog (Figure 5). Some participants actually thought Ember was a teddy bear!

Figure 5: Ember NOAA’s Canine Ambassador meeting and greeting students as she invites them to visit the OAR table (Photo Credit: NOAA)

As they moved to explore the NOAA tables, OEd, ORTA, and the SEFSC team discussed how the work done in NOAA stretches from space to the depths of the sea (Figure 6). 

Figure 6: ORTA Staff (Normandy Carter, Andrew Peck and Ember) working and talking with the 2024 Youth Summit students (Photo Credit: NOAA)

Both ORTA and OEd hosted virtual reality (VR) experiences, which offered the students the chance to discover colorful corals, explore a shipwreck, swim with playful sea lions, or explore Hawaiian waters with green sea turtles. These VR experiences were created by the NOAA Office of National Marine Sanctuaries. More information about these can be found at the Sanctuaries 360°: Explore the Blue website. 

Also available on ORTA’s VR headset was the opportunity to investigate the urban heat island effect in Washington, DC. This virtual reality experience created by the NOAA Environmental Visualization Lab guides viewers through the nation’s capital, displaying the urban heat island phenomenon throughout the city. Urban heat islands are areas that experience higher temperatures compared to nearby areas. These temperature differences are often due to highly concentrated urbanized features, such as buildings and roads and limited greenery, such as trees.

Figure 7: Other organizations / partners participate in the Department of Commerce 2024 Youth Summit. (Photo Credit: NOAA)

The other organizations / partners that participated in the DOC 2024 Youth Summit included (Figure7):