15th Marvelous Education Alliance Symposium (mEA)

From October 7-9th, The International SeaKeepers Society’s Educational Outreach Manager, Jack Rucker, attended the Marvelous Education Alliance’s (mEA) 15th International Symposium in Arlington, Virginia as well as Washington, D.C. The Marvelous Edcuation Alliance is a long-standing, international network of nonprofit organizations, ministries of education, and experienced teachers/educators all working together to share resources and further global education initiatives. This year marked the second mEA Symposium that members of the SeaKeepers team were lucky enough to attend, with members of the South Pacific team attending the Pacific rendition of the Symposium earlier this year.

Our first day at the symposium included a mass meetup of all the exhibitors and presenters as well as the Alliance organizers at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, where Jack met more than 100 educators and professionals from all over the world, including representatives from the Ministries of Education from Liberia and Uzbekistan! After playing some networking bingo and doing a few icebreakers, we played a Scavenger Hunt in small teams, exploring all over the museum as quickly as we could to win free mEA merchandise.

The second day was the first day of presentations, where Jack met all of the presenters as well as symposium attendees at George Mason University in Arlington, VA. After some more networking, the day mostly entailed of themed breakout rooms where multiple organizations would present all about their ongoing efforts, what work they are undergoing, and how all symposium attendees can cooperate in the future. Jack was slotted in one of the first breakout room sessions with other STEM-based groups in a breakout room called “STEMtastic Adventures!” Jack spoke about the SeaKeepers mission, shared our vast educational database, and made several promising partnerships with educators and organizations going forward. Later that day, Jack also stayed into the evening to host a table of SeaKeepers educational content, speaking to all symposium attendees about how they could get involved with various SeaKeepers volunteer opportunities and utilize SeaKeepers resources.

On the third and final day, Jack would attend an Exhibitor Fair where all presenters and organizations would have the opportunity to individually network and engage with physical materials the others had brought, including such fun games as a movement-therapy based VR simulation for children with special needs to improve their motor skills, an interactive movie showing followed by a Q&A with its director, and attending panels where the Ministries of Education of multiple countries answered questions about their experience and fielded questions from the audience.

As the third day came to an end, Jack and the other attendees heard from Anthony Bloome, the Executive Director of the Marvelous Education Alliance, and signed SeaKeepers up to officially become members of the alliance going forward! This symposium yielded not only some incredible additions to our educational resource database, but also allowed our Educational Outreach Manager to meet some incredible educators and organizations, many of whom expressed significant interest in collaborating with SeaKeepers. Jack had an amazing time networking, presenting, and sharing all things SeaKeepers at the mEA Symposium, and we are immensely excited to see what the future holds for more partnerships and further collaboration with the amazing team of the Marvelous Education Alliance!