There are some natural areas that are restricted from public use due to sensitive issues.  Often, these areas have so much to teach our youth about the environment with lessons about human interaction, the importance of some land for water, biodiversity, and history. Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, located in the Northwest Hawaiian Islands, is the largest conservation area in the U.S. but is very difficult to visit. Thus, there is a real challenge to teach the youth about these islands and ecosystems that are very much a part of their state and heritage.  That is where the Navigating Change project shines as an inspiring program that not only teaches students about this special place, but uses these lessons to motivate students to use the knowledge and experience that they gain towards caring for their own community and natural areas. Ka‘ena Point provides unique learning opportunities for the public and students to learn about environmental, historical, and cultural resources, interconnections, and similarities to the Northwest Hawaiian Islands. This led to a partnership and the development of an amazing program for youth.

Navigating Change is an education and environmental stewardship program that incorporates traditional knowledge with western science to inspire the next generation of conservation leaders. Students study the differences between the Main Hawaiian Islands and the uninhabited islands, atolls and marine ecosystems in the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument and gain a better understanding of human impacts and are empowered to restore and protect our unique natural spaces. The program includes curriculum and resources to assist teachers and administrators.  It also incorporates service learning, outreach, and giving back to their community. In the past, various restoration projects, outreach events, and a video have been produced that is used for the program.  FOK members witnessed the impact the program had on another community, saw the unique opportunities that Ka`ena Point would bring to the program, and pursued the development of a project.

Friends of Ka`ena were instrumental in demonstrating how Ka‘ena Point could be an ideal place-based learning area for students to learn about Papahānaumokuākea.  Ka`ena point is located on the northwest tip of Oahu and is protected as a State Park and State Natural Area Reserve. The Natural Area Reserve is one of three locations in the world where the public can view the Laysan Albatross and supports a unique dune ecosystem that is prevalent throughout the northwest Hawaiian islands. However, Ka`ena point state park continues to experience numerous destructive practices that continue to degrade the natural, cultural, and historic resources. The Natural Area Reserve has additional protection that keeps these practices out, and the differences between the two areas provide a unique opportunity to highlight how humans can negatively impact the environment. It also provides opportunities to stop these destructive practices and become involved in the restoration of these ecosystems.  Youth are the next generation stewards and FOK supports efforts to engage this next generation and inspire them to become stewards.

The 2010-2011 school year was the pilot project for the Navigating Change program for Ka`ena point. Three schools were selected to participate this first year.  A partnership was formed to bring the students to Camp Erdman at the end of their school year to experience Ka`ena point and the many natural, cultural and historical resources that embody this special location. YMCA Camp Erdman is an overnight camp located within Ka`ena Point State Park and supports FOK. It has the facilities, mission, and staff that make it an ideal location for students to see and interact with the environment, history and traditions that they have been learning in the classroom.  Prior to their overnight adventure, there were classroom sessions that utilized the curriculum and also brought in speakers from various disciplines.  This provided the foundation so that when they came to Ka`ena Point, they had an understanding of the issues and unique environment.  The program facilitates learning about sea birds, mammals and plants of this special place, and understanding the parallels of Ka`ena Point and our northern islands. It aims to instill curiosity about our archipelago and inspire students to cherish these special places.

The students engaged in a number of activities including native plant restoration efforts for the dunes, dissection of Laysan albatross bolus (to learn about marine debris and its many impacts), a mountain hike, and navigation using the Hawaiian star compass.  The activities were supported by FOK members and led by enthusiastic camp counselors who were able to engage the students in exciting, fun ways while learning and then teaching the lessons key to Navigating Change. As night fell, partners with the Polynesian Voyaging Society explained the basic mechanics of star identification and navigation to students and their teachers. The Navigating Change team hopes that by providing this enriching program to children, creating community partnerships, and developing Ka`ena Point as a safe learning and restoration site, schools and community will continue to support and expand the efforts to restore Ka`ena to its natural beauty. It is the hope that this program will also help to provide a model for other communities, teachers, and students to Navigate Change where they live. In addition to the student programs, education students at Hawaii Pacific University , School of Education were able to spend two days and one night at Camp Erdman to experience the Navigating Change program. The hope is that these young teachers will then introduce the Navigating Change curriculum and bring their new students to Ka`ena point and engage in the program. What better way to learn than to experience the projects your students would be involved in?   

An important component of the program involves bringing the lessons learned back to the community to build stewardship of the area.  The students involved in Navigating Change will be engaged in the production of a video that will be used by future participants in the program and presented to the community and public.  The video, Message Aloft, will introduce the Laysan Albatross to students and communities, as an ambassador of our oceans, as well as a sensitive barometer for the imbalance our human footprint has produced on land and sea.  This video, along with the other components of the program, aim to have a lasting message to change behaviors and produce the next generation of stewards that will improve the natural resources and preserve the cultural and historic resources for future generations.   The video is also being developed as a training mechanism that will assist with future years as well as provide training for Camp Erdman counselors to be able to replicate the messages and Hawaiian values that were woven into the lessons. FOK is working with the Navigating Change Program and Camp Erdman to develop a long term program.    

For the students, the program was full of new experiences and got them out into a new environment to really connect to the world around them. During the planting, they gave back to Ka`ena and could see the change they created.  For one of the groups, they were greeted by magnificent Laysan Albatross after they completed the dune planting.  The Laysan Albatross circled the students in a way that seemed to them that the birds were thanking them for the gift of the new plants and a healthy dune ecosystem. On the mountain hike, the students not only learned about the land but were told mo`olelo’s (Hawaiian legends) and the reasons why Hawaiians found this place so sacred. They learned about the connections between the land and the sea and then saw and experienced the very places that held the spirit of Ka`ena.  They saw and touched the enormous amount of plastic trash that the Laysan Albatross ingested and made a real connection between their actions and the impact to the birds. Finally, they experienced the night sky and saw how the Hawaiians learned to navigate the waters. The experience was truly unforgettable!

To help inspire the students for the contest, the Greening Youth Foundation launched a partnership effort to bring the students to the MLK National Historic Site in Atlanta, a unit of the National Park Service. The foundation called the contest the “Environmental Series at the MLK Jr. National Historic Site.” Over three months, students visited the historic site to learn about King’s life by touring his birth home, his tomb and other important markers in his life and by watching an inspirational video about the Civil Rights Movement. They also met with Park Rangers and Superintendent Forte. The public school students were members of GYF’s Eco-Force® Clubs that currently operate in elementary, middle and high schools throughout Metro Atlanta.

More than 120 people, including students and staff from several Atlanta and Dekalb schools, gathered for the ceremony under a big tent outside the visitors center at the Martin Luther King National Historic Site. Angelou Ezeilo, Executive Director of the Greening Youth Foundation, told the gathering that she was “floored” by the quality of their presentations.  “Your creativity is amazing,” she said. “I look out at you all and know that you are our future environmental leaders. I know you will be thinking of the next thing that will preserve our national resources.”

In a moving speech, Judy Forte, Superintendent of the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site, told the students about the lessons that her parents passed along to her and her six brothers and sisters, “that the blessings of the earth do not come free.”

“They taught us that we must serve as faithful stewards of the earth and if we do, it will sustain us, season after season,” Forte said. “Yet today, people are breaking this expectation. Mistakes such as the recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico are impacting man, plant and animal life along the Gulf Coast, the carbon from the cars we drive is polluting our air and making it difficult for many of us to breath, and the chemicals that are in our food are putting our world—and our way of life—in danger. The places we love, the resources on which we rely, the peoples of the world who are most vulnerable, are all at risk if we do not take action. That is why I am so pleased to partner with the Greening Youth Foundation.  With our Greening Youth partners, we have the opportunity to introduce young people to the National Park Service, expose them to their heritage, as well as to the land their ancestors helped to build."