April Peebler has been an advocate for ecological and social justice since she was a young adult. While in Palau in 1997 during law school on an overseas externship working with Senate Legal Counsel, she learned quickly about the atrocities that our oceans face due to human impact as she witnessed first-hand the harms of unsustainable fishing practices by world powers. When her two young children were ready to enter school, April became concerned with the lack of meaningful education available as schools were not preparing youth for the perils humanity would face. She therefore stepped out of practicing law and develop a learning model using interdisciplinary studies in which all core subjects and real-world skill-building tied into a theme based on solving a problem the next generation would inherit. In a group-learning environment, children were taught through shared-learning, as kids inspire kids, and through project-based, hands-on, and “in-the-field” lessons often guided by specialists for various disciplines and experiences. The learning model developed in 2010 became the basis of Heirs To Our Oceans education applied to its summit, retreats and other direct services for youth. In founding Heirs To Our Oceans with her family, April believes whole-heartedly that the answer to the survivability of humanity is to connect in purpose across human-created barriers — the purpose being protecting the life-line sources of our shared water planet — and to elevate the voices, education and opportunities for those who are most vulnerably situated, experiencing first-hand the world’s crises, and to turn to indigenous ecological, leadership and value systems as solutions. April’s and her family’s commitment to holistic education and health for the world’s youth formed the pillars of Heirs to Our Oceans, as the whole benefits when all are cared for.
