The Shirts have Arrived!

Hey all- great news! Team Marine has shirts! Team Marine member Ecco Theohar designed the T-shirts herself and they turned out awesome. The shirts arrived in time for a group picture on May 19th when the team met with Kristina Vonhoffman from the Alliance for Climate Education with our VW Bug! This year, Team Marine has taken on the challenge of converting a 1970s VW Bug completely to an electric vehicle!

Team Marine is All Grown Up!

It's that time of the year again. School is coming to an end and the high school graduates are getting ready for college. Recently, we found out where Jessica Thorson, Danny Franco, Kou Collins, and EccoTheohar(our Team Marine seniors) are heading after they graduate from SAMOHI.


Team Captain, Jessica Thorson, was accepted into both NYU and Oregon. After receiving a scholarship of $20,000 Jessica chose to attend the University of Oregon for the fall semester where she will be majoring in the romance languages and minoring in environmental studies. She will continue her environmental studies at Oregons coast campus- roughly an hour away from main campus.


Danny Franco will be attending St. John's University in New York City.

Ecco Theohar will be attending Santa Monica College.

Kou Collins will be attending the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Team Marine wishes the best of luck to all of our beloved seniors and hope that they fulfill their sustainable dreams at the college of their choice.

Nhi is in the Bio Olympics!

Nhi Ho and David Shabsovich, juniors at Santa Monica High School, will be representing Santa Monica at the USA Biology National Finals round.

Every year, over 10,000 students take the US Biology Olympiad (USABO) local test hoping to represent the United States in the International Biology Olympiad (IBO). 500 of these students then move onto the Semifinal round to take a grueling 2 hour test. Out of the 500 Semifinalists, 20 are then selected to attend an intensive residential program at Purdue University to learn about “advanced biological concepts and exacting lab skills.” Four students will then be selected to go to the International Olympiad at Taipei, Taiwan.

Out of the five students at Santa Monica High School that took the local exam in February, four made the Semifinalist round. Of those, only Nhi and David advanced to the next round.

“I’m so excited to be attending the training session at Purdue University during June. If my AP Biology teacher, Mr. Gaida, did not recommended me to take the local test, I would have never made it this far. I look forward to representing Santa Monica at the training in June,” said Nhi, 17.

Kathy Frame, director of USA Biology Olympiad and Special Projects, said, “[Nhi’s and David's] stellar performance in the Olympiad identified [them] as a talented scholar placed among the best of the U.S. biology students. This is an achievement of which [they] can be very proud of.”

Lets all wish Nhi and David "good luck" in the biology olympiad. Lots of thanks to Mr. Gaida and everyone who made this possible.

Team Marine Outreach to Younger Students

On April 23th, Team Marine members participated in Caylc's (The California Youth Leadership Council) Earthday Awareness event hosted by Calyc members at the Skirball Museum In Los Angeles. Calyc is a group of dedicated So Cal high school students that plan and implement events to raise awareness about endangered animal species and environmental issues. Team Marine member Nhi Ho and other team members helped educate little kids to reuse old t-shirts and cereal boxes to make bags and notebooks respectively. Nhi, Natalie, Alexis, and Maykel presented our Straw Boat made out of 8,000 recycled straws. Everything used to make the boat was either saved by Team Marine and SAMO students or reused including: bottle caps, straws, water bottles, and broken surf-boards. The Team Marine members spread awareness that reuse is often better than "throw-away" thinking for what cannot be recycled. Team Marine did a great job and we are very proud of their work. Lots of thanks to the Skirball Museum and Caylc!