X-Oceans Outreach: 9th Annual World Oceans Day and Interview with X-Oceans Outreach Director

The 9th annual World Oceans Day celebration at StFX took place in June of 2022. It was a Saturday and a day off for most, but the J. Bruce Brown building was alive, well, and bustling with the crowd. The annual celebration began in 2009 when the United Nations General Assembly officially declared the 8th day of June as “World Oceans Day”. StFX caught up with the celebrations in 2013. It was World Oceans Day from which X-Oceans Outreach was born.

X-Oceans Outreach is a program that is run throughout the year through the biology department, whose director, coordinator, and nurturer is Regina Cozzi. As an avid supporter of the program, I thought this the perfect opportunity to conduct an interview with Mrs. Cozzi.

The first question I asked was: “What are your roles at the university and how did you become involved with X-Oceans Outreach?”

Mrs. Cozzi replied: “I’m a Senior Laboratory Instructor for the first year Biology courses, Bio 111 & 112, and the X-Oceans Outreach Director. X-Oceans evolved from our annual World Oceans Day event hosted by the biology department. Every June since 2013, schoolteachers who attended the events would ask us if we could visit their classrooms to promote marine biodiversity and ocean concepts to their students. So, we started visiting schools with live marine organisms, and it all snowballed from there. We now have a reputable program promoting ocean literacy to youth in rural schools and communities.”

Next, I inquired: “Has X-Oceans evolved from previous years? How so?”

She responded: “Yes, absolutely! The program has evolved tremendously in the last few years, thanks to funding contributions from Fisheries and Oceans Canada and NSERC PromoScience. We’ve developed a strong team of outreach coordinators and hire over 20 student facilitators annually.

We serve 4 neighboring rural counties and reach over 4000 youth per year. Our program was recently endorsed by UNESCO IOC (Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission), which is a wonderful achievement!”I wanted to know, considering how active the program is, if she saw X-Oceans expanding in the future. To this she replied: “Yes. I see it expanding to additional geographical regions in the near future. The demand is certainly there, the requests for school visits keep coming in.”

Finally, I asked her: “Is there anything else you’d like to share? A fond memory? A favorite touch tank animal?”

She answered: “I have many fond memories… here’s my latest: Last month, at the end of one of our school visits, one of the kids asked this as we were leaving: “When are you coming back?”. That was very heart-warming. X-Oceans outreach truly has a lasting impact on our youth.”

Indeed, it has! Many of the X-Oceans student facilitators feel a similar way about X-Oceans. “I’ve grown lots of valuable friendships and lots of connections and new knowledge,” says Tyler Reed, an X-Oceans student facilitator in the biology program who was hired this summer. “It was joining X-Oceans that made me realize how fun biology is”, he says. He also tells us about a cool field work job he acquired through the connections he formed at X-Oceans.

The program is not limited to biology students and hires students from a wide range of programs. Over the summer, there have been students from Human Kinetics, Earth Science, Education, PGOV etc. who have made a lasting impact and contributed greatly to the X-Oceans Program by devoting their time and energy as student facilitators and volunteers. If you are interested in volunteering during the school year or are looking for a summer job, send a message to x-oceans@stfx.ca.

PS. Mrs. Cozzi has yet to reveal her favourite touch tank animal. Perhaps you should join X-Oceans to find out!