Program graduates will be able to work in enterprises that both feed the hungry and remove underwater pollution. “As an entrepreneur, I need those entry-level and middle-skill workers, because they’re hard to find,” he says.įurther, SMC is ideally positioned for this certificate because the college’s Southern California location has been identified by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) as one of the two best places in the country for aquaculture.Īquaculture’s potential is as vast as the oceans that cover 70 percent of our planet. Students earning the certificate will fill the jobs that are going to be needed in Southern California. In addition to his passion for aquaculture and education, Churches has another reason for promoting student success. “As I started getting more expertise in conservation-minded food production, low-trophic aquaculture - specifically bivalves and seaweeds - kept rising up as one of the best and most sustainable ways to harvest proteins from the ocean.” Mary’s University, San Francisco State University, and AltaSea, too.Īfter working in commercial fishing until his mid-20s, he went back to school to study the industry’s ecological impact. He earned his PhD in molecular biology from USC and has taught or mentored at Mount St. Relatively few people have a background in all three, making him a natural fit for the project. And since AltaSea serves as an incubator for a number of blue-economy enterprises, students will have internship and job opportunities with other businesses as well.Ĭhurches brings to SMC a combination of scientific and teaching experience. “Holdfast has a site at AltaSea,” Churches explains, “so we’ll be just tens of feet from students who are studying aquaculture concepts firsthand.” He looks forward to welcoming SMC student interns to the company, and to hiring graduates for full-time positions. SMC’s program is unique in its direct connection to entrepreneurial research organizations, like AltaSea or Holdfast. “Although other colleges and universities offer aquaculture programs, their training facilities tend to be limited to marine laboratories,” he notes. “Internship experiences are crucial and required for the certificate,” says Nathan Churches, Holdfast co-founder and chief science officer, also SMC’s aquaculture faculty lead. SMC will also collaborate with Holdfast Aquaculture, which produces resources for sustainable seafood growth, for résumé-building experience. “When they finish the certificate program, students will know about everything from growing microalgae in a clean space to planting shellfish, kelp and algae in a marine environment,” SMC’s sustainability manager Ferris Kawar explains, referring to the practice of adding organisms to threatened ecosystems to restore their vitality and balance. Other courses are being developed, and the program’s electives will range from business and general marine biology to oceanography and possibly even scuba classes. Students will then move on to two newly designed laboratory courses that will provide hands-on training: Hatchery Techniques and System Design (on how to keep organisms alive and thriving in a marine lab or aquaculture facility) while Fish, Shellfish and Algae Production will educate on techniques to produce aquatic life in large volumes. The new program will begin with Introduction to Aquaculture. In addition to state funding through the Strong Workforce Program, curriculum development and faculty support for this new program is being made possible by a Builders Initiative grant, and community project funding from U.S. The first program being developed at SMC as part of the partnership is a pioneering six-course aquaculture certificate program expected to launch in 2023. SMC is partnering with AltaSea at the Port of Los Angeles-a sprawling 35-acre non-profit center devoted to accelerating scientific collaboration and advancing the blue economy-to create post-secondary certificate and degree programs that span several fields of study. We want to position our students for the first opportunities in one of the world’s fastest-growing business sectors,” said Santa Monica College (SMC) Superintendent/President Dr. projects that the blue economy will produce some 126,000 jobs in LA County alone by 2030, with estimated wages of $37.7 billion. The Los Angeles Economic Development Corp. Meeting this urgent challenge-of building up ocean resiliency-comes with a benefit: job opportunities. It shouldn’t come as news that greenhouse gases and other pollution, as well as overfishing, seriously threaten our oceans’ ability to sustain life.
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