On the Conservation Scholars Program, and what the children said afterwards
"I never even been on a boat before. But now I get it, why people always looking happy on their boats. It's cool out there, man. I wanna do it again."
That is a Conservation Scholar, writing to the Oceanic Society after a day at sea. We have a folder of these letters now, and we have been reading them for weeks, and the honest thing to say about this journal entry is that it is better than anything I could write about the programme myself.
What the programme is
Since 2023, Koala Eco has sponsored the Oceanic Society's Conservation Scholars Program, which takes students from under-resourced schools out onto the water. They spend the day looking for whales, seals, sea lions and seabirds with marine scientists, and they learn what the bay is, how it works, and that there are people who do this for a living.
Since 2023, the programme has taken thousands of children out onto the water, across dozens of wildlife boat tours. In 2025, 78 per cent of the participating children and teenagers were on a boat on the ocean for the first time in their lives. By the end of the day, 100 per cent of them had made a personal pledge to support conservation in their own community.
That first figure is important. Access to nature is not evenly distributed. Research has been consistent on this for years: children from low-income communities have significantly less access to quality natural environments, and those experiences tend to carry the most lasting developmental and emotional weight. It is possible to grow up forty minutes from the Pacific Ocean and never once be on it.
Whale Smith
One class was invited to name a whale.
"Thank you for the whale naming and our field trips to further expand our learning. It makes learning so much more fun and interesting! We named our whale 'Whale Smith.' Thanks again!" — Isaac, 2025 Conservation Scholar
The whole class wrote in about it afterwards. "Us as a class were very happy to name our whale because many people don't get to have the chance to name a whale, but we got this chance to name our whale (Whale Smith)."
We have thought about Whale Smith a great deal. There is a real animal out in the Pacific now carrying a name given to it by a group of thirteen-year-olds in Oakland, and somewhere in that class is a child who will still know that name at forty.
What they wrote
The letters arrive in pencil, mostly, and they are specific in the way children are specific.
"Thank you for giving us this opportunity. I had a great time being there and learning about planktons and seals and sea lions!" — Sonia, Age 12
"The best part of the trip? Umm, seeing plankton from SpongeBob is real!! This is the most fun school's been, like, ever." Student, Age 13
"Thank you so much, I had so much fun seeing cool animals like seals and those things that look like dolphins." Student, Age 13
"I loved watching for life — the ocean is an amazing place. Thank you for everything." — Gabrielle, Age 13
"Thank you for funding our field trip and also for letting us learn and experience the ocean first hand." — Nayely Cauich, Age 13
"Thank you for making our sailing dreams come true. We couldn't have done it without you all." — Quan, Age 13
"Thank you for funding our sailing trip, it was really fun but cold." — Ethan, Age 13
The teachers wrote too, and one of them wrote something we have not been able to stop thinking about:
"Personally, I wanted to see if I could get on a boat without chickening out — I have a fear of boats. I went because I knew this would be an incredible experience for my students. As a teacher, I wanted to show them how to fight through what makes you scared to find the joy in new adventures."
Another: "Your amazing staff and crew made this crazy adventure one of the best memories our kids have ever experienced in school. Many pushed past what they thought they couldn't do and showed the world they could."
And one that describes what a programme looks like once it has been running long enough to become a tradition: "Every year, students ask if they're going 'on the ocean,' and the excitement is contagious."
Why we fund this rather than something else
The belief this company was built on is that time in nature is not a luxury but a component of mental health — the ethos of ecopsychology, and the reason for every decision we make about what goes into a bottle.
The Conservation Scholars Program is what the same belief looks like when you follow it out to the people who have least access to it. A child who has never been on the ocean cannot love the ocean in the way that produces a person who will protect it later. The order of operations matters. First you have to be taken there.
Ethan was right, incidentally. It is really fun, but cold.
More Nature, Feel Better.
Koala Eco has sponsored the Oceanic Society's Conservation Scholars Program since 2023. Jessica Bragdon and Paul Davidson both sit on the Oceanic Society Advisory Council.
