Edwin Yoo
Making Waves Across New England - Edwin Yoo
Edwin Yoo is a scuba diving instructor and beloved high school biology teacher at Somerville High who is merging his passion of science and teaching to foster the next generation of underwater scientists.
Edwin's long-term goal for promoting environmental sustainability is to provide meaningful and engaging experiences for Boston students that serve as a pathway to enter academic careers in marine biology and environmental science or other STEM careers. He strives to address the disproportionately negative impact that environmental pollution and climate change has had on BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) communities in Greater Boston. His vision is to provide access to Open Water certifications and then continuing to support those students diving in New England as well as other marine biology enrichment programming attached to our school.
We want to give a huge congratulations to Edwin as he successfully led his first Open Water Scuba diving course this past summer at Codman Academy. Throughout the OW Certification course, Edwin interviewed students who shared their experience after each classroom, pool, and open water dive. Students will now reflect on how their experiences have an impact on their views around climate change and environmental sustainability and how this may shape their interest in pursuing academic studies in these STEM.
Introduction and first steps as a diver
For as long as Edwin can remember, he has always had a strong connection with the ocean. He grew up in Long Island and recounts how his dad would take him out to the Long Island Sound or Fire Island whenever the weather cooperated. Some of his best childhood memories were time spent with his dad at different State Parks: fishing for porgies, crabbing off the pier, collecting hermit and fiddler crabs in the marsh at low tide, or boogie boarding the rough waves off of Robert Moses State Park. Evening television was all about PBS: watching David Attenborough "Life on Earth" and "The Living Planet" and Jacques Cousteau's documentaries.
In 2002, a few years after graduating college, Edwin had a trip planned for Costa Rica. It was then that he decided to get Scuba Diving certified in Somerville, MA. He recalls the certification dives in Rockport, MA that were brutally cold despite the 7mm farmer john wetsuit and three finger gloves. The visibility must have been less than 5 feet and he thinks he saw one striped bass. Despite the miserable experience, he was hooked by the incredible experience of breathing underwater, but he vowed never to dive in New England again.
Edwin's first tropical dive was off the coast of the Osa Peninsula in Costa Rica and it was absolutely breathtaking. While at depth, hooked up and saw hundreds of stingrays forming a "river" above him as they migrated gracefully near the surface. This is a core memory for him as a diver because it matched what he had seen on PBS so many years earlier. In 2005, he traveled to Koh Tao, Thailand and it was there that he completed his Advanced Open Water certification. Despite the advancement in his training, for the next 12 years, he only dove once a year on a charter boat in whatever tropical country he happened to visit each summer. This essentially meant his comfort and skill level did not progress much from the AOW course in Thailand. Scuba diving was a fun activity but not a core part of his identity.
Divemaster and Assistant Instructor
His 12 years of diving stagnation all changed in 2018. At this point, he was 7 years into his career as a high school science teacher and with the encouragement of his colleague, he applied and was awarded an educator summer professional development grant through Fund For Teachers (FFT). In his research preparing for this grant, he found a coral reef restoration program in Utila, Honduras which seemed perfect because it aligned with his professional interest in science education and would enhance his AP Environmental science and Biology curriculum. However, the FFT grant review advisor strongly recommended that he instead consider becoming a dive professional. Her reasoning was that pursuing professional status would open up an entirely different pathway for Edwin. He was skeptical as he could never imagine being a dive professional, but he eventually shifted his grant proposal: Divemaster Internship at Utila Dive Centre in Utila, Honduras.
Edwin's FFT fellowship did in fact play out exactly as the grant supervisor had suggested. He was supported by the Pat Cooke Fund (https://www.patcookefund.com) which is a Boston based foundation that supports teacher designed professional development with a specific focus on climate change and sustainability. With the generous support of the Pat Cooke Fund, Edwin returned to Utila to complete a coral restoration internship in 2018.
Covid-19 Pandemic - The Beginning of a New England Diver
During the global shutdown, there wasn't much else to do than to keep a distance from people. Luckily for divers, it's easy enough to stay a few feet from your buddy at all times. During the shutdown, Edwin had the great fortune of meeting a local legend in New England, Stephen Bigelow, who led weekly shore dives with MetroWest Dive Club for the former Date@8 weekly dives. Stephen was an incredibly supportive mentor whose patience and advice for new to New England divers have not only hooked Edwin back to New England but hooked countless numbers of other divers to shore dive in New England.
Fort Wetherill Octopus
Fort Wetherill Pygmy Squid
Edwin now loves shore diving in New England and has combined it with his other hobby, photography. Over the past 5 years, Edwin has been on countless of dives taking underwater macrophotographs with dive buddies, Asli Ertekin and Tom Gaitley. They have great memories of diving together- slowly searching for nudibranchs at Fort Constitution in the winter and finding octopus and seahorses at Fort Wetherill during night dives in the summer.
The Future
During this time, Edwin no longer saw scuba diving as some recreational activity to do on summer holiday in tropical water. He realized the incredible possibility of bringing scuba diving to his schools' community.
EDWIN in STEM
He wants to increase access for his students to academic careers in STEM, specifically marine biology/environmental science as well as recreational use of green spaces along our New England coastline.
Edwin with Students
Learn more about Fund for Teachers:
fundforteachers.org