The Les Fruits de Mer Association champions, creates, and implements education for children. In cooperation with SXM Wildlife, Les Fruits de Mer conducts an education program on the island that includes hands-on classroom visits, presentations, workshops and field trips as well as work with after-school groups and a book donation program.
Our education program is focused on local wildlife, arts and culture, subjects that are sometimes underrepresented in curricula designed for Europe or North America. We design all our learning activities to be fun, engaging and interactive as well as educational. We work with students of all ages. Past activities have included multi-media presentations about local wildlife, guided nature walks, and workshops in digital photography and arts and crafts.
Education Program Team
Stephen Winkel: With a degree from the Paris School of Fine Arts and over twenty years of public education experience, it is natural that Stephen Winkel would join the Les Fruits de Mer education team. He is a former director of the Val d’Oise chapter of the League of Education and has hosted numerous workshops on art and ecology for foundations, resorts and 93 large schools in the Paris region.
Mark Yokoyama: Author of The Incomplete Guide to the Wildlife of Saint Martin, Mark Yokoyama is a graduate of Harvard and a skilled nature photographer whose wildlife columns appear weekly in local newspapers. Mark has given dozens of school presentations on a variety of topics related to local ecology and wildlife, led classes on guided nature walks around the island and conducts wildlife photography workshops for island youth.
Jennifer Yerkes: Currently working on a series of children’s books, Jennifer Yerkes is an accomplished writer with a passion for collecting Caribbean folklore. She holds a degree in Psychology from Wellesley College. Here on the island, Jennifer has given multi-media presentations about underwater life and ecotopes to after-school groups, and co-designs arts and crafts activities that engage local kids in nature and culture.
