Yongjin Park ’22, sheds light on the issues invasive species have on the “local ecosytem and economy.”
This summer 25 students were accepted in the CSGC grants program. These grants are funded due to the generous support of the Cost, Earle/Mendillo and Workman families, who established endowment funds to support the community and public service endeavors of future generations of Deerfield students. For more information on these grants please visit: https://deerfield.edu/csgc/grants.
Throughout the summer, Malama Maunalua, a Hawaii-based organization that focuses on the protection of Maunalua Bay, and I will work on promoting environmental stewardship across the island of Oahu. Since the beginning of the summer, the members of the organization and I have planned out possible ideas to work on throughout the summer. Starting this week, I will start on my first project of creating a revised video introducing Malama Maunalua to the general public.
The members and I have had weekly zoom meetings: discussing the organization’s vision and mission, organizational priorities, and my interests for the summer. Considering the time difference and the different schedules that the members and I have, it was certainly difficult to meet often. However, we made sure to meet at least once a week and discuss all work and progresses via email. During the meetings, the organization introduced various projects they were interested in – ranging from videos, info graphics, virtual tours, and many more.
This organization addresses a very important problem that is present both in Hawaii and other parts of the world: invasive species. Hawaii has always had issues with invasive species damaging the local ecosystem and economy. For example, Coqui frogs, which were introduced from Puerto Rico, had no natural predators and ate a significant amount of insects; disrupting the balance of the native ecosystem. Malama Maunalua is currently working on removing invasive algal species that are reproducing in massive quantities and killing the native algae.
In the past, I have volunteered in algae removal events hosted by the organization, and both Malama Maunalua and I believe that awareness, in addition to volunteering, will garner more support in solving this chronic crisis.
As a result, the organization and I plan to create informational videos and post ads on social media platforms to bring more people’s attention to this crisis and the protection of environment in general.
Malama Maunalua and I express sincere gratitude to the Workman family for providing funds to purchase all the necessary software for media production and display ads promoting environmental stewardship.
