Students to Stewards - Yarminiah Rosa | Afrolatina Conceptual Creative Director and Artist

Students to Stewards

Photography and communications design for maritime archaeology and conservation nonprofit, Diving With A Purpose.

About Client

Client

Diving With Purpose

Partners

The Smithsonian,
NOAA,
iCARES,
Coral Restoration Project

Services

Photography,
Film,
Communications Strategy

CARES participant collects plastic debris during a DWP trash pickup day on the shores of Guanaja, Honduras.

Lead Instructor and CARES Program Director Kramer WImberly during a coral survey dive in Guanaja, Honduras.

CARES participants from Honduras and the USA meet for the first time during an icebreaker activity.

Challenge

Diving With a Purpose (DWP) is carrying out the essential, transformative work of training BIPOC youth in marine conservation and citizen science diving, but they lacked the visibility, documentation, and strategic communications to showcase its impressive impact. With limited time, resources, and media coverage, the organization struggled to tell its broader story to funders, partners, and the public, despite its life-changing effects on the communities it served.

projects in number

6000+

photographs

25

newsletters sent

47%

open rate

Challenge

Celebrating life milestones as a community matters just as much as the data collection work does.

Solutions

To elevate DWP’s visibility and amplify the impact of its work, I provide professional photography, storytelling, and strategic communications support. This includes capturing compelling visual content, refining the organization's narrative positioning, and crafting tailored messaging for DWP’s loyal newsletter readership to drive deeper engagement and support.

By actively participating in the program and working closely with both youth and instructors over the past three years, I was able to learn the organizations course material, build authentic relationships, and participate in the emotional arc of the experience from several vantage points. I’ve filmed and photographed everything from underwater dive training, to participant portraits, to behind the scenes views of evolving cross-cultural connections in South Africa, Florida, and Honduras.

Working closely with the program’s co-founder, Ken Stewart, I've help bolster DWP's community engagement by pairing elevated visual storytelling with a refined comms strategy that emphasizes both the urgency of ocean conservation and the importance of underrepresented youth taking up space in maritime archaeology and conservation.

Impact

Connecting DWP’s frontline cultural and conservation work to a broader, more relatable impact story has paid off. With elevated images and clear brand storytelling through their visuals, DWP has increased their newsletter open rate and digital engagement to 47%.

Fundraising via the newsletter and targeted campaigns has steadily increased on an individual level due to more consistent communications and mission storytelling to relay urgency.

Project Credits

PHOTO GALLERY

A climate story with a coming of age angle featuring students from the USA and Honduras who meet for the first time on a remote island to become citizen scientist divers and stewards of the ocean. They overcome awkward language barriers and steep learning curves to dive into the depths and save their coral reefs, forming lfe-long bonds and increasing their sense of purpose along the way.