“I was drawn to the program because there were a lot of activities and classes focusing on aquatic ecosystems. My love for the ocean and being on the water, whether it’s playing volleyball on the beach or collecting sea glass, has expanded my environmental sustainability passion to aquatic systems,” says Ellie. “The classes and field activities often centered around human impacts and conservation efforts.”
It was “human impact” that first raised Ellie’s awareness around environmental and sustainability issues. As a freshman at Taft (and later working in restaurants during the summer), Ellie was surprised by the amount of food waste generated by communal food preparation and service. She consciously worked to limit her own food waste and became an EcoMon at Taft—the group of student leaders dedicated to raising awareness around sustainability issues and leading conservation and environmental preservation initiatives across campus.
In Portugal, Ellie spent most of each day engaged in hands-on work around the different aquatic ecosystems prevalent in Lisbon, from rivers and estuaries to coastal lagoons and oceans. She contributed to conservation and sustainability projects that assessed water quality and threats to ecosystems, recorded the health and prevalence of various plant and animal species, and supported the work of a local NGOs in raising public awareness around coastal dune preservation and the plastics crisis in the ocean.
“We did some volunteer work for different communities,” Ellie notes. “We built sand dunes on a local beach to prevent sand and ocean water from hitting the village on the water. We built wooden signs and painted them to put on the beach for directions and rules on beach safety and littering. We picked up cigarette butts to clean up the streets and prevent the butts from being included in runoff into drains and eventually the ocean. We also did beach-clean ups by picking up trash from the sand.”
It was also Lisbon’s rich culture and history that first drew Ellie to the summer opportunity there.
“As the capitol of Portugal, Lisbon is bustling with lively people, architecture, and amazing food. I participated in a lot of cultural activities, like learning traditional Portuguese dances, cooking traditional dishes, and painting tiles (Portugal is well known for their decorative tiles and vast variety of fish). Lisbon also represented a great opportunity for me to visit historic sites, unique restaurants, and just take in a new experience.”
Still, for Ellie the most meaningful parts of the trip centered on the academic and volunteer experiences.
“Meeting a variety of instructors who were passionate about their own small environmental study, like fast fashion production or about invasive species, and what they were trying to do to mitigate harm within both land and water environments, was really impactful. It really showed me that small changes within communities that grow overtime will eventually make a bigger impact as support spreads. From my experience within the program, I aim to use what I learned and implement new ideas within the EcoMons and spread more awareness within the Taft community through engagement and outreach.”
Ellie’s Summer Journey was made possible in part by a Robert Keyes Poole ’50 Fellowship grant. Established in memory of Robert Keyes Poole '50, Taft teacher from 1956 to 1962, Poole Fellowships are awarded each year to enable Taft students to engage in travel or in projects consistent with Mr. Poole's lifetime interest in wildlife and the environment.
Slideshow Captions by Ellie
1. I got to see and touch a starfish for the first time! My group was doing a morning field work activity on studying Rocky Intertidal ecosystems. We had class to learn about the organisms living in the environment and how they survive with the coming and going of the tide. Other organisms we saw were snails, crabs, a cuttlefish, and more starfish (as a note, we did not interact with the starfish for very long because it is bad to have too much human interaction. After a brief discussion on how starfish live in the intertidal zone, we let it go to live its best life.
2. The second photo is a of two fish made out of cigarette butts. The task was to collect cigarette butts around the community and use them to create an image of how pollution and runoff is negatively affecting the environment. The fish have Xs as eyes because they’re dead from inhaling the pollution in the water.
3. Picture 3 is of really unique tiles I saw during my free time in the center of Lisbon. Lisbon is well known for their tiles and tile-making is deep within Portuguese culture. I bought several tiles as special reminders of the time I had in Lisbon, possible through the Poole grant!
4. Grilled sardines. Sardines are also iconic to Portugal. My program went on a weekend excursion to the city of Tomar, where there was a festival going on and I tried grilled sardine for the first time. They were very good! Canned sardines are also popular and you can find stores all over Lisbon. I got some canned sardines as a gift for my dad.
5. My group of volunteer workers made fences and sand dunes surrounding a local beach to keep water and sand from reaching the village that was on the water. The sand dune is supposed to absorb water when floods occur, or the tide level is higher than usual. The long plants/grass on the top of the sand dune is also used to absorb water and keep sand from blowing into the village. The fence also helps with blocking sand and trash from reaching the ocean by catching the trash.
6. Pastel de nata is an extremely popular dessert from Lisbon that you can find all around Portugal. In our traditional cooking class, I worked on making the pastel de nata. Making the crust for the outside of the dessert is similar to making croissants: you continuously fold in layers of dough and butter together in order to make the dough flaky as it bakes. After putting pastry into iron baking tins, we made an egg custard to fill the pastry. After filling the pastry, the pastel de nada baked at a really high heat, and then our group ate the pastel de nada for dessert after dinner!