Did you know that sea turtles make their way home after 20 to 30 years at sea in order to reproduce?

“Sea turtles seem to remember where it was that they came from, so they can navigate back to those places,” said Larry Wood, Ph.D., executive director of the National Save the Sea Turtle Foundation (NSSTF).

While pursuing his degree at Miami University of Ohio, Wood took a trip to Florida to relax and look for potential job opportunities. That vacation turned into a career as eventually Wood found his niche studying hawksbill turtles. He noticed that much of the conservation and research efforts in South Florida were focused on the beaches and nesting activities. Hawksbill turtles do not nest in this area, but they are present in the oceans. Wood studies how and why that species is found off the coast of Florida and where they originated from.

His work caught the attention of the NSSTF. The foundation was formed by Frank Wojcik in 1987 with the mission to provide educational programming, promote public awareness of Florida’s marine ecosystems, and support sea turtle research both in the United States and abroad. Funding for Wood’s research eventually turned into a partnership and as Wojcik planned to retirement, Wood found another trajectory to his career—leading the foundation.

“The complexities of sea turtle research and conservation now are greater than they were years ago,” Wood said. “We want to make sure that we’re taking the resources we’re lucky enough to gather and providing them in a fair and equitable way across organizations that are doing education, research, or conservation related to sea turtles.”

For more than 20 years, NSU has been a recipient of NSSTF’s generosity. Wojcik, who is still active with NSSTF as the chair of the board, established the foundation’s Adopt-A-Nest program. The initiative funds the efforts of the Broward County Sea Turtle Conservation Program, which is staffed in large part by students from the NSU Halmos College of Arts and Sciences.  An exhibit on sea turtles is housed in the National Save the Sea Turtle Foundation Education Building at the Marine Environmental Education Center (MEEC). Equipment upgrades and educational outreach programming at the MEEC have also been possible due donations from NSSTF.

“We have a long history with NSU,” said Wood. “The connection comes from the fact that the beaches in Broward County are surveyed [for sea turtle nests and activity] primarily by students from NSU. In order to support their efforts—whether it be buying them an ATV or other equipment they need—we developed the adopt-a-nest program.”

“A few years ago, the foundation gave funding for the educational building at the Carpenter House. We have our name proudly on the sign over the door.”

For its collective giving to the university, NSSTF is recognized with a plaque on the Fellows Monument in Fellows Way on the NSU Fort Lauderdale/Davie Campus.

“NSSTF fosters people’s interests and offers students that need help a leg up in their future careers. If we can even be a little part of that, that’s great,” Wood said.

For more information on ways to support the NSU Halmos College of Arts and Sciences please contact Andria M. Cunningham, MSW, CFRE, Executive Director of Transformational Gifts, University Advancement.