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February 14, 2024
Please join us in congratulating Nicole Sedran on her recent completion of her Master's degree! As Programs Intern with Miami Waterkeeper, Nicole helped curate content for Miami Waterkeeper's fertilizer outreach and education campaign. Throughout her internship, Nicole completed a series of projects, working closely with Miami Waterkeeper staff on both the Fertilizer Campaign and 1,000 Eyes on the Water Program.
For her Master of Professional Science (M.P.S.) project, Nicole worked with Miami Waterkeeper for six months as a Programs Intern on an educational campaign that coincided with implementation of municipal fertilizer ordinances. Nicole furthered the campaign's education platform by creating content for the webpage including a map illustrating municipalities in Florida that have fertilizer ordinances on the books. Nicole also developed a Prezi to describe in detail the impacts of irresponsible fertilizer use. Nicole also contributed content for the "Mr. Fertilizer," educational video and various infographics for this outreach effort. She cataloged progress made in this campaign in Miami Waterkeeper's blog where she wrote specifically about fertilizer ordinances passed in Islamorada and North Bay Village. Read the Islamorada blog HERE and the North Bay Village blog HERE.
Her MPS project culminated in a final report where she analyzed various engagement metrics related to user interaction with the fertilizer webpage, such as page views, exit rate, and the bounce rate. Reviewing one month of engagement metrics, Nicole found a significant increase in users. She found a "healthy" bounce rate for Miami Waterkeeper's online reach. She also concluded that the average time spent on the webpages was on par with the non-profit industry's average. Overall, Nicole's efforts illustrated that Miami Waterkeeper's Fertilizer Webpage's performance is comparable to the industry average. She concluded that the blog posts were more successful in engaging the audience due to their higher engagement rates.
Using pre and post-training surveys, Nicole also analyzed the effectiveness of Miami Waterkeeper's "1000 Eyes on the Water" training program. This program trains participants to identify, document, and report issues of environmental concern in our community. She concluded that the program’s efforts are successful in changing people's knowledge of environmental threats to Biscayne Bay.
Read her full report HERE. Nicole's work will continue as part of Miami Waterkeeper's community engagement efforts related to responsible fertilizer use. Thank you for your great work, Nicole!