Edventures Inspire Teens to Protect the Environment

Jan. 6, 2010 - PRLog -- When Tara Short was growing up in the suburbs of Chicagoland, she would spend her summer days snorkeling in her grandparents’ pool imagining her self exploring an oceanic world filled with dolphins and colorful fish. Today, traveling to exotic places, exploring the ocean, and studying sea life is just “another day at the office. Through Green Edventures, Tara is showing teens that were just like her, places she only dreamed about as a child in hopes to inspire them to be active environmental citizens.

In 2008 Tara founded Green Edventures as a way to help students make connections to wild places and to help teachers bridge classroom concepts with real-world experience and first-hand observation in an effort to inspire students to be active environmental citizens.

During one week exploring the southern Baja Mexican coast or trekking the temperate rainforest in Alaska, teens do more than most people do in their entire lives including snorkeling with wild sea lions and trekking icy blue glaciers. They develop as sense of place and learn tangible ways they can make a difference.

This isn’t you average tour company. "Green Edventures is different from other student adventure programs because we focus on eco-tourism, not nature tourism. Eco-tourism is linked to the communities that live in the areas we visit. By supporting indigenous people, we help protect that place through them and provide a more holistic experience for our participants," says Tara.

Tara has come a long way since the days of suburban-kid summer fun. From exploring massive moving rivers of ice in Alaska, to ivy-covered temples in the misty Mayan forest, to the blue underwater world of the Caribbean and the Gulf of California, Tara has seen first-hand the impacts people are having on ecosystems throughout North and Central America.

“In my opinion,” says Tara, “the biggest environmental issue is ignorance. How can teens protect the ocean or rainforest if they have never seen it? Teens are the future decision makers and voters. It is imperative that they have this type of exposure to ensure that wild places are protected for generations to come.”

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Green Edventures, LLC is a carbon-neutral eco-adventure program which helps to protect people, places and ecosystems through eco-tourism. Each program located in Alaska and Baja Mexico supports indigenous people and local conservation projects. Green Edventures hosts teacher-led school groups and individual student travelers ages 12-19, and upon request provides specialty programs for college groups and adult learners.