Upcoming Blue Economy Pathways Educator Events
Our target audience for all educator events is high school teachers, counselors, administrators, and career coaches, but we accept educators from other levels, space-permitting.
Annual Summer Coastal Crawl—June 9-12, 2025
Special blue economy focus: Ecotourism
Apply here!
This professional development event will kick off noon Monday, June 9, at USM's Gulf Ship Island Building in downtown Gulfport and run until Thursday at noon. A bus will transport teachers from the opening site Monday and will leave daily from the event hotel. While details are still being finalized, here's an overview of what you can expect:
Monday noon, June 9: Blue Economy jobs overview and tours of related job sites in Gulfport.
Monday late afternoon: Ecotourism focus: dolphin-watching cruise for attendees and families on Ship Island Excursions’ Captain Pete.
Tuesday, June 10: All-day tour of training and work sites in Pascagoula
Ecotourism focus: Lunch panel at Bozo’s SeafoodWednesday, June 11: All-day tour of training and work sites in Ocean Springs and Biloxi
Ecotourism focus: Walter Anderson Museum
Thursday, June 13: Half-day demo of various partners, including those based at Stennis, in Long Beach and Pass Christian.
Ecotourism focus: Clean beaches, safe harbors, shore birds
Additional notes:
Teachers will be awarded $300 for attending this program.
CEUs will be available pending approval by SRESA.
Attendees from outside of the coastal counties will be housed at a hotel at the expense of the USM Center for STEM Education.
*Security protocols at any site with federal contracts require that teachers accepted into the program provide additional identification information now and the day of the event and make it unlikely that non-U.S. citizens will be able to join us.
Hear what teachers have to say!
“The GenSea 3-day teacher workshop was awesome! We visited so many places and got to learn about many job opportunities, including educational requirements, that we can take to our classrooms and share with our students to help guide them as they think about their futures.”
“This was amazing and one of the most beneficial teacher workshops I’ve ever attended. There is not one thing I learned that I cannot incorporate with my lessons. We have an amazing blue economy in our back yard and these local students and beyond need to know what all it offers other than just white sandy beaches.”
“My expectations were exceeded for this training. I appreciate the access that was granted to the teacher participants. We enjoyed learning about and meeting professionals who expressed interest in actually helping us connect our students to jobs. We felt like VIPs the entire three days, and that was extremely rewarding.”
“It's such a great opportunity to get CEUs and learn about different topics without sitting in a singular classroom for 9 hours. I have already spoken highly to other teachers in my hallway and my principal about this trip, and the feedback has been nothing short of excitement and a desire to get a similar experience.”
Read more about teacher responses to the program here.