Engaging Ocean Grads As Interdisciplinary Professional Problem Solvers: Why Preparing Our Future Ocean Leaders Means Inspiring Them to Look Beyond Their Academic Learning.

Academic learning and research experiences alone cannot prepare our emerging ocean leaders to take on the challenges facing our oceans. Developing solutions that incorporate environmental and ocean sciences necessitates an interdisciplinary approach, requiring emerging leaders to be able to work in collaborative knowledge to action systems, rather than on micro-discipline islands. Professional and informal learning experiences can enhance graduate marine education by helping learners gain the communication, collaboration, and innovative problem-solving skills necessary for them to interact with peers at the interface of science and policy. These rich experiences can also provide case-based and hands-on opportunities for graduate learners to explore real-world examples of ocean science, policy, and management in action. However, academic programs are often limited in their capacity to offer such experiences as a part of a traditional curriculum. Rather than expecting learners to rely on their academic training, one approach is to encourage and support graduates to seek professional development beyond their university’s walls, and think more holistically about their learning as it relates to their career interests.

During this session we discuss current thinking around the professional learning needs of emerging ocean leaders, what this means for academic epistemologies, and examine initial evaluation outcomes from activities in our cross-campus consortium model in Monterey Bay, California. This innovative model includes seven regional academic institutions working together to develop an interdisciplinary ocean community and increase access to professional development opportunities to better prepare regional ocean-interested graduate students and early career researchers as future leaders.