Sampoerna Academy is proud to share the recent good news about one of our outstanding teachers who has been acknowledged by the Bow Seat Ocean Awareness Programs for her innovative teaching method. Kristin Abt, a Biology and English teacher at Sampoerna Academy Medan, has won an Educator Innovation Award for effectively and creatively teaching students about ocean conservation issues and empowering them to be stewards of our blue planet. She received a $750 USD cash prize.

About the award:

The Educator Innovation Award was presented by Bow Seat Ocean Awareness Programs (Bow Seat), a Massachusetts-based nonprofit whose mission is to engage youth in ocean conservation and advocacy through the arts. Bow Seat’s flagship educational program—the Ocean Awareness Contest (Contest)—invites youth to learn about and explore the connections between human activities and the health of our ocean through visual art, writing, film, music, dance, and interactive or multimedia.

About Ms. Kristin:

Ms. Kristin is passionate about providing students with real-world ways to get involved in conservation issues. She found the Contest to be a special interdisciplinary opportunity to combine language skills, science concepts, and the arts—no matter which subject she was teaching. All of her students found the Contest theme to be particularly relevant to their home country, one of the largest archipelagos in the world with more than 17,500 islands. Ms. Kristin worked with other teachers in her school to recognize student projects through an internal awards process before students submitted their work to Bow Seat.

Quote from Ms. Kristin:

“No matter what level or subject I teach, I love encouraging students to make links between topics learned in class and their environment,” said Ms. Kristin. “As Indonesian citizens, my students can be changemakers on the pressing issues of plastic pollution, overfishing, climate change, and habitat degradation facing the archipelago. My hope is that this exposure to ocean activism will ignite their passion to work for a sustainable and beautiful country.” “Bow Seat is committed to supporting educators who teach about environmental issues and creative communication; from climate change to the ecological drivers of pandemics, the arts are a powerful way for students to explore critical issues of our time and advocate for the health of people and our planet," said Linda Cabot, founder and president of Bow Seat. “We are thrilled to have educators like Kristin as a member of our global community, and we respect the incredible work she does to ignite her students’ curiosity, encourage their creativity, and open their eyes to their own power to affect change.”