Your Shores
Explore and restore South Florida
About Your Shores
This program joins forces with ocean-loving high schoolers to explore and restore South Florida's coastlines, both on land and at sea! We want everyone to be able to participate, so the whole program is free. Not only that, you'll get a stipend for participating. This is a collaborative program between Frost Science's community and conservation programs, Upward Bound Math and Science (UBMS), Museum Volunteers for the Environment (MUVE) and Marine Conservation. The Your Shores students are part of a large cohort of about 65 UBMS students.
You'll get paid to survey reef fish, dive down to our coral nursery, research biodiversity, care for native plants, and photograph wildlife for science. Biscayne Bay, Miami's beaches, and Florida's Coral Reef will thank you.
What Goes On
Throughout the school year, you'll learn the ins and outs of coastal restoration. You'll get a free scuba certification (normally about $500), you'll get hands-on experience in scientific research, and learn new academic and professional skills to boost your college applications and your resume.
In the mornings, we pick you up and take you out to get your hands dirty exploring and restoring coastal habitats in Miami. Each month there's a conservation theme, like biodiversity or invasive species. We'll explore each theme while we scuba dive near North Miami Beach and work in the dunes and mangroves at Haulover Park. This all happens before you have lunch (also free) with all your new friends.
In the afternoon, you'll all go to Frost Science (the museum) to meet up with the entire UBMS cohort. Here you'll prep for college by studying for standardized testing (ACT/SAT), applying for scholarships, and writing college essays. You'll also work on your own conservation projects.
WHO is on Your Team
This program is full of people, students, mentors, and staff, who are committed to understanding the environment in order to best conserve it for generations to come. If this sounds like you, join the program to meet like-minded people and make friends of a life-time!
UBMS Program Manager: Leandra Gonzalez
I'm here to help students figure out what their interests are in STEM and give them the opportunities to pursue them. Seeing the confidence grow in our first cohort of students has been amazing, even if they were scared or struggling. These students got to dive (haha) into a program that didn't just teach them about scuba- it taught them about themselves. They discovered their own depth of capability with their willingness to put themselves in new, challenging environments, and I couldn’t be more proud of them.
MUVE Program Coordinator: Cameron Bogle
Within Your Shores, Cameron plays a crucial role in the habitat enhancement projects, biodiversity monitoring, and he helps ensure your experience in the program is as impactful as it is unique. Cameron’s years of experience working with students, scuba diving, and pursuing the natural sciences gives him the foundation needed to effectively teach young learners and inspire a lifelong passion for the environment.
Your Shores Junior Mentor: Rose Thelami
My role is to ensure the students understand the purpose and importance behind this project. This experience has been quite an adventure. Getting to explore the ocean with these amazing kids has been a blessing. The fact that we’re all new to this is crazy. Seeing these kids dive into the underwater world is like discovering a whole new level of joy. We’re all in this adventure together.
WHEN We Meet
We'll meet during summer break to complete your scuba certifications. Once the school year starts, we will meet every Saturday. Each Saturday has a theme, to reflect one classroom day and each ecosystem: underwater, dunes, and mangroves.
Summer
Enter the program in August, and meet your new group. Become a certified underwater explorer (PADI certification).
Fall-Winter
Protect the planet! Swim with the fish and explore Florida's Coral Reef. Dig in the dunes and map your way through the mangrove forests to research and conserve these habitats. Remove ocean plastics from the environment, collect data, and take pictures of plants and animals for science.
Spring
Talk about your experience in Your Shores at the UBMS Symposium.
A Day in the Life
Meet Richard, original Your Shores student and high schooler at Miami Edison Senior High. He joined Your Shores alongside six other Miami students to ride the conservation wave of a lifetime. Let's follow Richard...
After his scuba certification, Richard said:
My time so far at the Your Shores program has been truly extraordinary. From enjoying moments with friends to mastering professional diving skills, the journey to 30 feet underwater, exploring submerged boats, navigating through a sunken plane, and achieving my open water recreational diver certification has made this experience incredibly amazing. I'm grateful for the opportunity and the friends that have accompanied me along the way. It's been one of my biggest dream[s] to explore the vast unknown and the Your Shores program has been assisting me in achieving this dream.
WHERE We Meet
To read the map, you'll see where Miami's habitats are located. Click on the plus signs to zoom in on the sites you'll directly protect.
Frost Science
Frost Science is a leading science museum and an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution, in the heart of , dedicated to sharing the power of science, sparking wonder and investigation, and fueling innovation for the future.
Classroom Days & Saturday Academy
The bus picks everyone up in the morning, and one Saturday every month it takes everyone to Frost Science. During the monthly classroom day, everyone plays games, works on their conservation projects, and learns the science behind habitat restoration.
The other three Saturdays of the month after fieldwork in the mornings, you will regroup at the museum in the afternoons. This is when everyone preps for college and studies for the ACT/SAT with the rest of the UBMS group.
Rally for the Reefs
Your Underwater Habitats
Become a certified underwater explorer. Dive down to sunken ships and explore Tigertail Lake. Ride the boat offshore to swim with the reef fish, tend to Frost Science's underwater coral nursery, and learn to identify brain corals, branching corals, and sea fans. You'll learn how to conduct science underwater, do underwater photography, and learn to identify common reef creatures like rays, sharks, and turtles.
Reefs matter
Often referred to as the “rainforests of the sea,” coral reefs offer greater biodiversity than any other ocean ecosystem. Though they cover less than one percent of the ocean floor, nearly 25 percent of all ocean species depend on reefs for food and shelter.
Scuba certification
Get your Open Water scuba certification with PADI to explore the world underwater. The certification process includes an intro to breathing underwater in the pool, a swim test, online learning modules, and four dives either in Tigertail Lake or offshore on the reef. Our partner will host the certification process. Please see the list of pre-scuba diving forms and requirements here .
Christina Polycarpe
"Once we started swimming to our dive location it just felt so cool to see myself and all my friends in our diving gear with our black wetsuits and our BCDs. Shortly after, we began our descent and I was just giggling under the water out of excitement. We reached a sunken ship and our instructor told us we had to experience being 30 feet under the water for 30 minutes. While waiting, my partners and I couldn't speak to each other so we would make hand signals and gestures under the water to keep each other entertained, we even played rock, paper, scissors..."
Frost Science's Midway Nursery
Midway Nursery, Frost Science's underwater coral nursery , lives in a sandy patch on the bottom of the ocean less than a mile offshore. The coral nursery is being built in phases. When it's complete, it will be home to hundreds of coral fragments, supporting scientific research and restoration of endangered ecosystems.
Dig in the Dune
Your Dunes
With Your Shores you will protect the at Haulover Park by planting native species, removing invasive plants, and taking photos of plants and animals for science.
Document wildlife with the free iNaturalist app, and AI will do its best to tell you what you found. All of the photos and data you upload will help scientists understand how wildlife moves and how ecosystems change over time.
Dunes Matter
Although often associated with surfing or building sand castles, beaches are dynamic ecosystems that support all kinds of native wildlife like seabirds, grasses, crabs, turtles and crocodiles. Dunes keep communities safe by reducing the impacts of hurricanes and storm surge on inland and coastal areas.
Haulover Park maintains the second longest stretch of undeveloped shoreline in Miami-Dade County.
Map the Mangroves
Your Mangroves
Through Your Shores, you will explore at Haulover Park, get sweaty, clean the coastline, and find treasure (trash) and catalogue it for science. You'll learn about mangrove biological adaptations and get to know some of the other plants that can grow on land and in water. Take photos of these wild plants using the iNaturalist app and contribute to biodiversity science.
Mangroves Matter
Partially rooted on land and partially growing in water, mangroves provide habitat for a range of different native species. Birds roost in their branches and baby fish seek refuge among the dense roots systems, maturing before they venture out into the ocean. Mangroves have complex root systems that stabilize shorelines and protect coastal communities from high winds and storm surge.
WHY Should I Join?
This program is an opportunity for you to explore and restore Miami's natural environment. You'll get really cool, hands-on experience restoring underwater and coastal habitats. Not to mention, you'll get paid!
- Stipends - $1000 per student, paid in two installments
- Scuba certification - get your PADI Open Water certification for free
- Support - build relationships with mentors and museum staff
- College readiness - get help with college essays, standardized test prep, and scholarship applications
- Real world experience - boating, scientific research, coastal habitat restoration techniques
- Resume building - earn certifications and trainings that make you employable
- Friends! - meet like-minded people
"What drew me to Your Shores was that I saw that the ocean was dying in the summer... I saw [the corals] dying. They were all bleached, white, colorless. I want to bring back the color." -Dannesa Acosta
Am I the right fit for the program?
To participate in Your Shores you must have an interest in conservation and restoration science and be willing to obtain a scuba certification. You must be able to swim 200m and tread water for 10 minutes. The scuba certification process requires students to be at least 16 years old and have no medical constraints, please see medical checklist below for constraints.
You must be a Frost Science UBMS student, or be willing to join the larger UBMS program. Preferred high schools that already participate in UBMS include Booker T. Washington, Northwestern Senior High, Edison Senior High, Miami Central Senior High, and Miami Jackson Senior High. You must be available every Saturday from mid-September through May.
Ready to explore and restore South Florida with Your Shores?
Required forms and authorizations:
- Dive shop waivers for the open water certification
- For PADI scuba certification: Medical Questionnaire , parent authorization required
- To receive stipends, complete a W-9
- Frost Science liability waiver and photo release
- Miami-Dade County Parks Liability waiver and photo release, Affidavit of volunteer service, free background check, and fingerprinting (for 18yrs+)
