Stockton University college students from the Striped Bass Tagging for Stockton program and ecology and saltwater fishing class interacted with 4th through 8th graders from underrepresented schools on October 20 along the beach and boardwalk in Atlantic City, in front of the Stockton University dorms.
According to Dr. Adam Aguiar from Stockton University, the hope of the interaction between the grade schoolers and college students is too foster an appreciation for higher education in the younger students while broadening the community and social perspectives of the college students. “It also gives the education majors an opportunity to practice their future craft,” Dr. Aguiar said.
The New Angles for Success fall event is a collaborative outreach project where college students teach the grade schoolers angling basics (safe casting and knot-tying techniques, etc.), environmental resource importance and protection measures, and beach and outdoor safety methods. According to Dr. Aguiar, interactive stations allow grade schoolers competitively cast at plastic fish with factoids of various species; young anglers also get to learn gyotaku fish-printing, knot-tying, as well as fish biology.
“Our Lady Star of the Sea school and Principal Academy Charter School attended the event,” Dr. Aguiar noted, adding that event collaborators included Hooked on Fishing Not On Drugs (HOFNOD) and the New Jersey Outdoor Alliance (NJOA). Bait and tackle donations came courtesy of Gabriel Tackle of Brick and Magictail Outfitters.
