The High Tech High Media Arts program is not new to taking on innovative projects. In fact, it’s a part of the curriculum.
So when junior Kelly Coughlin thought up an idea for a new Surfrider high school club, organizers, teachers and students were thrilled to ride her wave of inspiration toward a cleaner future.
As a result, High Tech High Media Arts has launched the first sanctioned Surfrider Foundation high school chapter, according to Surfrider Foundation Executive Director Jim Moriarty.
Coughlin said she proposed starting the High Tech High Surfrider Club after attending a San Diego Surfrider Chapter event. Coughlin said she thought the high school organization could link students with similar interests to share ideas about how they can become engaged with the San Diego Surfrider Chapter and other organizations, she said.
“I feel like going out and getting the youth involved, because they’re the people that need to know about this stuff,” Couglin said.
Moriarty joined the newly founded HTH group during its first meeting on Wednesday, May 2, to provide inspirational words as the fledgling chapter begins to stretch its wings. Moriarty told students that the key to the future is the development of innovative ideas, the use of new technology and bringing their ideas to fruition, he said.
As the students begin to organize, new ideas to spread the message about protecting the environment will flourish, he said.
The program would have a certain degree of autonomy that would free it from direct oversight from the national foundation, Moriarty said.
This autonomy, he said, creates a way for the chapter to come up with its own ideas and not necessarily be tied down to activities under a Surfrider banner, he said.
Moriarty said students should think differently about implementing their ideas, he said.
“Times are radically different,” Moriarty said. “Don’t try to fit into the gray-haired mold,” he added.
He told the students that dozens of unofficial high school Surfrider chapters have been created all over the nation without permission, he said.
Environmentally aware students have already begun to bring their ideas to the table.
Take the efforts of High Tech High Media Arts junior Bianca Padron, for example. She, like many others, loves the beach, she said.
Padron started a Web site as a class project. The site ” www.beachcleanups.org ” brings information about all the local beach cleanup events into one place, she said.
Padron and other volunteers update the site, she said.
Although Padron didn’t encounter immediate hands-on support from other students in organizing a beach cleanup through her, she remains encouraged.
According to Moriarty, it’s the ideas like Padron’s that matter most.
Faculty advisor and Surfrider member Randy Scherer helps facilitate the interaction between students and outside groups. His role is to create the conditions for the students to grow personally with field work, combining the real world and school, he said.
The Surfrider Foundation is a nonprofit organization that works to protect the environment, particularly coastal areas, according to its Web site.
The group is made up of 50,000 members and 60 local chapters in the U.S., with affiliates in Australia, Japan and France, among other countries.
For more information, visit www.surfrider.org.