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AT BASE CAMP
National Geographic Young Explorer Retreat
In late September, Dahlia had the opportunity to visit National Geographic Base Camp in Washington, D.C. alongside her 2024 Young Explorer cohort.
Over the course of the retreat, she joined other early-career changemakers, storytellers, researchers, and conservationists for several days of learning, reflection, and connection.
Photo Credit: Mark Thiessen/National Geographic
LEARNING THROUGH GLOBAL STORIES
Conservation Comes in All Sizes
From classroom-style workshops to conversations in the auditorium, the retreat offered more than lessons on how to tell a good story. It was a space to understand how stories can move people toward care, action, and collective responsibility.
Throughout the retreat, Dahlia took part in educational and storytelling workshops led by field experts, mentors, and National Geographic Explorers. The cohort explored projects from around the world, from climate-induced displacement in the Sundarbans, to the beauty and importance of snakes in Nepal, sea turtle conservation in Ecuador, and environmental justice across communities.
RESTORATION CONVERSATIONS
Tying it All Together
These stories served as a powerful reminder that conserving wildlife and protecting nature is not the responsibility of one person, one field, or one country. It takes the unity of people and communities everywhere.
Through mentorship and peer learning, Dahlia reflected more deeply on how The Marmara Project fits into that global movement: as both a conservation initiative and a community-rooted story of care for a sea under pressure.
THE MISSION MOMENT
Speaking for the Marmara Sea
As part of the retreat, each Young Explorer worked with mentors to prepare a “Mission Moment”: a three-minute speech introducing their project and explaining the deeper why behind their work.
For Dahlia, this was a chance to speak about the Marmara Sea not only as a body of water facing pollution, biodiversity loss, and public disconnection, but as a place tied to memory, community, and belonging.
The Mission Moment became an opportunity to share the heart of The Marmara Project: reconnecting people with the sea beside them, and showing that conservation begins when people feel that a place is worth loving, protecting, and fighting for.