The 13 West Haven High School students who were selected to participate in the University of Connecticut’s (UConn) inaugural 2023-24 Eco-Digital Storytellers (EDS) program presented their “Shoreline Saviors” StoryMap at the Eco-Digital StoryTellers Showcase on May 16 at the Connecticut Science Center. UConn’s EDS program engages high school student-teacher teams in creating community-focused digital media environmental stories with support and guidance from undergraduate near-peer mentors and university faculty.
It was West Haven High School digital media and journalism teacher Jennifer Cummings‘s idea to apply for her class to be included in the UConn EDS program. Her 13 students — Rawasy Almaksoudi, Zariah Batts, Nazaya Brantley, Mariah Foster, Melany Garcia, Cinthya Genis, Camille Godfrey, Shacqwan Kingston, Agatha Lima-Freitas, Tristan Ortiz, Samantha Peralta, Mia Rubirosa, and Connor Tuttle — went on multiple field trips to UConn to get training in video production and environmental research.
The “Shoreline Saviors” StoryMap features West Haven’s Shoreline Resilience and Eco-Restoration Project and includes an overview, along with some history, the project’s goals, how the community was engaged, and how to volunteer. Once funding is secured to construct the project, 1.5 acres of public shoreline along one of the highly trafficked stretches of the boardwalk across from Old Grove Park will be restored to a native coastal plant and dune habitat with ADA-accessible pathways, gathering spots, and interpretive signs featuring environmental education.
As part of the StoryMap, the students produced a short (embedded in the StoryMap) and a long video designed to promote the project. They conducted interviews with the public and those involved in developing the project, including Mayor Dorinda Borer; project leaders Marilyn Wilkes, Vice President, Land Trust of West Haven, and Mark Paine, Director, City of West Haven Parks and Recreation Department; LaLani Perry, Chair, Economic Development Commission; project designers Michael Koontz, Senior Urban Design/Waterfront Planning Practice Leader, GEI Consultants, Inc., and Laura Schwanof, Landscape Architect/Ecological Practice Leader, GEI Consultants, Inc.; and Juliana Barrett, Extension Educator Emerita, Coastal Habitat Specialist, UConn’s Connecticut Sea Grant Program, who is collaborating on the project’s interpretive educational signs.
In addition to West Haven High School, the 2023-24 EDS cohort included StoryMap projects by A.I. Prince Technical High School and Great Hartford Academy of the Arts. Their StoryMaps can be seen here.
