Twelve Coronado High School students successfully completed the Emerald Keepers internship program for the 2025-2026 school year. This is the fifth year Emerald Keepers offered the environmental-leadership initiative, which continues to expand with new programs and participants.
The 2025-26 interns collectively volunteered more than 480 hours, working in the school garden, at Emerald Keepers events, and on yearlong Passion Projects the students select and manage.
High School Garden. Composting and organic gardening are year-round activities for interns. This year’s crop included carrots, peas, kale, lettuces, yellow squash, summer squash, celery, radishes, tomatoes, potatoes, lemons, tangerines, green onions, and broccoli as well as marigolds to repel pests. The garden yielded over 170 pounds of produce, which was all delivered to the Imperial Beach Neighborhood Food Pantry.
Coronado Crops. Coronado residents with excess crops invited interns to pick their produce for donation to the IB Food Pantry. The program, spearheaded by interns Danny Vinegrad and Logan Berk, yielded more than 2,200 pounds of produce this year. More than 4,000 pounds has been picked and donated since the program began in spring 2024.
Eco Camps. Anna Thoms enlisted other interns to create three educational camps at the high school garden for elementary school students. Children learned about pollinators, water conservation, and composting through fun and informative activities, including gardening, trivia games, relay races, and scavenger hunts.
Emerald Keepers Classrooms. Eleanor McLellan, Dhara Jost, and Kalista Searles prepared Emerald Green, Ocean Blue presentations for elementary school children covering topics such as ocean animal habitats, protecting bees, recycling and re-using, reducing plastic use, and conserving energy.
Beach Toy Box. Shane Sylvester and Yeva Ivchenko proposed a beach toy borrow-and-return library to reduce plastic toys litter on the beach, coming up with designs, construction diagrams, and material comparisons with costs. The proposal was recently approved by the Coronado Recreation Department with build and installation planned for later this year.
Battery Recycling. Zoe Cocanig, assisted by Quinn Riebe, researched the hazards of improper disposal of used batteries on people, communities, soil, and water. They met with San Diego company Dream eWaste to learn more and discuss setting up local battery discard boxes to safely dispose and recycle batteries.
Bee Keeping and Pollinators. Kesler Tillner created educational materials about pollination and the importance of bees, which were presented to elementary school students. He also proposed more pollinator-friendly, water-smart public landscaping to the City of Coronado.
EMERALD KEEPERS SENIORS
Congratulations to the six graduating Coronado High School Emerald Keepers interns.
- Trey Gregory
- Dhara Jost
- Eleanor McLellan
- Kalista Searles
- Quinn Riebe
- Danny Vinegrad
Eleanor McLellen and Danny Vinegrad received this year’s Emerald Keepers Senior Award scholarships in recognition of their exemplary service both as interns and as volunteers. Danny Vinegrad and Dhara Jost were this year’s Coronado High School co-valedictorians. Congratulations all!
A big thank you to all the 2025-2026 interns for their outstanding dedication to environmental protection, stewardship, and sustainability.
APPLY TO BE AN INTERN
Applications for 2026-2027 school year interns will be open online August 3 through August 21. Check the Emerald Keepers website to learn more and sign up.
