CORALPALOOZA™ 2021
The question on everybody’s mind is, what is happening with Coralpalooza 2021? For new readers, Coralpalooza™ is the largest coral restoration event in the world, drawing in more than 300 participants in 2019 who returned nearly 2,000 corals to the reef!
This coming year, we hope to bring back elements from 2020 that made the event interactive and accessible. Everyone can be a part of the world’s biggest coral restoration event!
Coralpalooza™ 2019 brought people together from all over the world to restore corals and share knowledge! ©Coral Restoration Foundation™
Last year, to ensure universal safety for this global event, Coralpalooza™ went digital! It was an incredible experience to connect with coral lovers around the world! The online event was such a success we’re doing it all again! But there are still so many questions.
Coralpalooza™ 2020 went digital, making it easy for people to join from anywhere! ©Coral Restoration Foundation™
Will we add an in-person restoration dive? Who will be our guest speakers? How can you be featured on our digital page? Stay up to date with the latest announcements and register for our First Alert email! You will be the first to know all the Coralpalooza™ 2021 details!
VIRTUAL AFTER SCHOOL PROGRAM
Coral Restoration Foundation™ is introducing a new, weekly afterschool program! Currently, the program is only scheduled for April, but we are hopeful our students will love it and we can extend it!
This will be a virtual interactive ocean science program. Presenters will lead hands-on activities each week, offering some variety for the participants. When possible, CRF™ will inform students ahead of time about which materials they’ll need to do the “edutainment” activity. Students will take part in discussions, ask questions, and interact with the demonstration. Everybody can follow along and be involved, with or without the materials!
With so many ways to be an ocean steward, our virtual after school program is sure to make a coral scientist out of you! ©Coral Restoration Foundation™
Each week, we hope to inform and amaze students with one hour of fun science! Among the demos that we have planned are coral anatomy and defense, in which students create model coral polyps and slime! Our after school program covers basic ocean conservation topics and is designed so students of all ages can take part!
SEASONS OF A CRF™ INTERNSHIP
Coral Restoration Foundation™ never sits still. Our internship program operates on a 4 month rotation, and applications for the next round are closing on February 26th, this Friday! Last term, we had around 190 applications, breaking all previous application records! We hope to continue breaking records and expanding our applicant pool this round!
Our Fall 2020 intern cohort poses in face masks, smiling with their eyes to celebrate the end of another internship round! ©Coral Restoration Foundation™
We are proud of our internship program and constantly working to make it an empowering opportunity for people interested in coral restoration. Interns have the chance to work hands-on with endangered corals, study and learn about the science behind restoration techniques, and hone their field work skills. They also explore disparate interests by engaging with members of our staff, from education to development!
Interns learn about everything from coral restoration to conservation education! ©Coral Restoration Foundation™
The program is tiered, with each additional semester adding more responsibility and technical focus. These experiences, when combined, make for an internship that not only prepares its interns for working in the conservation field but allows and helps them to grow as people, both personally and professionally, throughout their time with CRF™. So be quick, get in your application before the deadline and maybe you’ll see us soon!
Many of our interns have gone on to do amazing work in the field of marine science. You can see what some of our CRF™ Alumni are up to here.
NATIONAL BATTLING BIOFOUL STUDENT CHALLENGE
This year, for our national student challenge, we are tackling a new problem – biofouling!
Read the full press release and register here!
JOIN OUR TEAM
Apply for our Summer 2021 Internship or our Temporary Restoration Associate position today!
Editor
Madalen Howard is CRF's Marketing Associate. Madalen comes to CRF™ via a winding road from the Tennessee hills, to the South Carolina low country, ending here in Florida’s Coral Reef. She earned her Bachelor's degree in Marine Biology and a Minor in Environmental Studies from the College of Charleston in 2016. Her experience ranges from field research to education, and communications.
Madalen spent the last 4 years as a Field Instructor and Social Media Strategist for MarineLab Environmental Education Center. Here she was able to study and teach marine ecology, while snorkeling through mangroves, seagrasses, and coral reefs every day. While at MarineLab she combined her education and research background, entered the world of communications, and developed MarineLab’s social media department from the ground up.
Throughout her life Madalen has had a skill connecting people with nature. With CRF™, she is excited to bring people into the world of coral restoration, creating inclusive pathways to scientific discovery.
"Heads Up" Editorial Intern
Tessa Markham is a recent graduate of Skidmore College, with a BA in English and Environmental Studies. She grew up in Wilton, in southwestern Connecticut, but spent her summers growing up either hiking and camping in the woods or swimming and sailing on the water. She has always been passionate about climate change and conservation. Diving for the first time in 2014 while taking a marine conservation course in the Caribbean leeward islands, she quickly amassed dives and got her PADI Instructor certification just three years later. Just after completing her instructor training, she spent nearly a month on the Yucatan Peninsula conducting research on their reefs, looking at the ratio of soft versus stony coral death. She later channeled her distress at the degradation of the reefs to write a short story about coral bleaching, which was published in Volume 5 of the Oakland Arts Review in 2020. Her capstone thesis built on this theme and she wrote a collection of four creative short stories that detail and exemplify climate change-induced environmental damage through a narrative lens. She aims to combine her degrees and experiences to make a career in science communications, making research and conservation accessible to everybody.