Blue Planet Foundation: Creative Writer Internship

Kelsey Loenhorst

I first took notice of Blue Planet Foundation when I noticed their name and logo plastered over many electric vehicle charging stations throughout O‘ahu. Their advertisements caught my eye because a cute cartoon discussing how important clean energy is for our community accompanied them. I never dreamed I would be a creative writer for this very company years later.

Writing for Seawords, the monthly publication of the Marine Option Program (MOP) over the past year has greatly prepared me for this exciting opportunity. I have been writing two articles a month with Seawords discussing everything from marine news, marine conservation, critter-of-the-month pieces, scuba news and even surf reports. Seawords has taught me how to write efficiently, meet deadlines and communicate an idea or argument to a particular audience. I now get to apply these skills every day with Blue Planet Foundation.

My duties as Blue Planet Foundation’s creative writer are basically that of a journalist. I find people in my community who are, in their own way, advocating for clean energy; I then contact them to request an interview. If they approve, I meet them in their place of business or a coffee shop, conduct a 20-30 minute interview and write their story. I am currently working on a campaign with Blue Planet that aims to collect 100 community member’s stories. Our end goal is to showcase how easy it is to get involved with clean energy and hopefully inspire them to take action. As for writing the articles, it does get a little hectic with the goal of 5 every week, but ultimately it is very rewarding to see a finished product that may inspire someone to want to help preserve our planet’s resources.

So far I have interviewed 14 people, of which have been a mix of CEO’s, business owners, professors, neighbors, friends, students, artists and farmers. The range of people I get to meet is growing every day. That is my favorite part of this internship, meeting new people with such a wide range of professions who are doing their best to promote clean energy and preserve our planet. On top of that, I am making connections every day with people that are potential employers in my career path.

Without Seawords and the Marine Option Program I cannot say that I would have ever taken notice to Blue Planet Foundation’s internship opportunity or paid much attention to writing at all for that matter. I am extremely grateful for this opportunity and for MOP; I also encourage all students to consider writing for Seawords and give yourself the opportunity to express yourself creatively, you never know who you’ll inspire!

Read this issue on Issuu:
May 2019 XXXIIII Seawords