Cousteau Visit Inspires Students

Instead of spending their summer at the beach, some Gulf Shores teenagers are doing something different this summer.
"The gulf is our life, our home and I think we're all concerned about the situation. It really hits home," says Basch Jernigan who along with more than a dozen classmates from Gulf Shores High School are going from the sidelines to the front lines of the oil spill disaster thanks to Philippe Cousteau. "We're launching a national program citizen journalist. We're starting in Gulf Shores with these young people helping them understand how all of us can tell the stories of what's happening in the world using technology today."
This is an idea that was not only born from citizen journalism but also to give the kids a voice. Kids that felt frustrated so far for not being able to help do anything to help in the disaster.
"We all want to be involved and can't stand standing back and seeing everything going on and not being able to do anything about it," says Jernigan.
Using cameras, pads and pencils the teenagers are asking questions and getting answers but more importantly they feel like they are doing something and that can make all the difference in the world according to Casi Calloway with Mobile Baykeepers. "They now have the tools to ask questions, to lean more and to put their feeling down on paper and get it out to the world."