ACE in Place Thailand 2021

It’s not every day that university students have the opportunity to meet and interact with the founder of a global organization. During ACE in Place Thailand, three Duke and Stanford student-athletes not only met, but worked directly alongside Brendon Sing, a co-founder of the NGO Shark Guardian.

ACE student-athletes supported Shark Guardian’s campaign to end shark finning import and export in the European Union by joining their marketing and social media efforts. The student-athletes created infographics, videos, and blogs to share on Shark Guardian’s social media platforms. They hoped to raise awareness of the campaign and increase the number of signatures on the petition to end shark finning in the EU.

“Thumbs up if you want the EU to ban Shark Finning!” Photo Courtesy of Finn Hossfeld

Hearing Sing’s vision for the NGO and passion for marine conservation motivated Finn Hossfeld (Duke Men’s Fencing) and the other student-athletes to truly engage with the service project. “There is a difference between someone who is passionate about something and someone who is knowledgeable about something.” Finn reflects, “You can get tired of listening to a person talking about the thing they are knowledgeable about; you cannot get tired of listening to a person talking about the thing they are passionate about.”

In addition to providing vision, research, and feedback for the ACEathletes, Sing also expressed his gratitude for the final social campaigns the students created and explained the difference the campaigns could make toward increasing awareness and inspiring action.

“The flexibility the ACE program offered was so wonderful because it allowed me to do so many things at once, while still being able to appreciate being immersed in Thai culture and language as well as participate in an extremely rewarding service project.”

– Emma Shuppert, Duke Women’s Swimming and Diving

The student-athletes invested in this global service project from thousands of miles away. The virtual aspect of the inaugural year of ACE in Place Thailand offered some surprising benefits. Emma Shuppert (Duke Women’s Swimming and Diving) continued her athletic training, took a course, and worked in a lab this summer, all while meaningfully contributing to this ACE team.

Shuppert reflects, “The flexibility the ACE program offered was so wonderful because it allowed me to do so many things at once, while still being able to appreciate being immersed in Thai culture and language as well as participate in an extremely rewarding service project.” Emma and her teammates learned how to make Pad See Ew in a virtual cooking class and how to kickbox in a virtual Muay Thai class.

The virtual nature of the program also allowed the student-athletes to learn from marine conservation experts across the globe, not just from one area. Alana Vawter (Stanford Softball) recalls that “Everyone we met, from Vanessa with GVI in Peru to Diony at Ocean Pledge in South Africa, radiated such joy when talking about their projects and only further sparked passion in what our project was.”

“Everyone we met, from Vanessa with GVI in Peru to Diony at Ocean Pledge in South Africa, radiated such joy when talking about their projects and only further sparked passion in what our project was.”

– Alana Vawter, Stanford Softball

Learning from these experts, participating in Masterclass workshops, and setting aside time for reflection helped Alana and the rest of the ACE team envision long-term effects of their own efforts with Shark Guardian.