Year 12 student, Ruth, is one of 12 candidates in Nature Conservation Margaret River Region’s youth marine stewardship program. The program, sponsored by the World Surf League, is aimed at building a culture of coastal stewardship and giving young locals with a keen interest in the ocean the opportunity to learn from leaders in coastal conservation, watermanship and leadership. Ruth has taken this opportunity and brought the ideas it generated back to her School community, organising a beach cleanup with other students. “That was how this idea started” she said. “My group was tasked with marine pollution and education and created the idea of beach cleanups and getting kids involved.”

The two beach cleanups Ruth organised happened during Discovery Week at the end of Semester 1, and Year 8 students spent the day cleaning up Peppermint Grove Beach and Dalyellup Beach. Her original plan with my group was to run a beach cleanup in her local community, but when she spoke to Science teacher Ms Diedrichs about it, they discussed Discovery Week and how well this project might fit with Round Square and their values. “As part of the service and environmental aspect, we thought we would include it in the School’s program and get the students involved, because it is such a great concept and idea for them to be a part of,” explained Ruth. The beach cleanups were a successful event, with rubbish of all sorts collected from plastic and metal scrap to even a retro washing machine which students caried all the way back to their bus!

Ruth, who is very passionate about the environment, plans to work in the conservation field when she leaves school. “I have grown up in an environment that is heavily based around the marine environment, and I would definitely, in the future, like to go studying marine biology or some kind of conservation degree where I am learning about how to uphold and protect our environments,” said Ruth. As part of the program, she attended workshops all linked to the marine world but covering a variety of topics including leadership, mental health, indigenous culture, freediving, reading the coastline and coastal conservation. “During that weekend we also did conservation work where we planted little seedlings and did rehabilitation of the coastal area, which was really fun,” she said. Ruth has now been offered an internship at Nature Conservation Margaret River Region, which will allow her to learn about different aspects of conservation and pursue her passions!