Mariner Marauder Booster Club

IMPORTANT: Please indicate that your donation is for FRENCH CONNECTIONS to make sure it goes to my students. Merci.

In June 2026, I (Marjorie Olorunniwo), French teacher at Mariner High School in Everett, WA, am organizing a cultural and educational trip to France for my students with EXPLORICA. We specifically chose The Taste of France Tour, because this tour will focus on French gastronomy as well as other cultural landmarks. Our tour will include visits to a French Dairy Farm, the famous Rungis Market, a chocolate museum and other well-known French castles located in the Loire Valley, a cooking class, a visit to Normandy and the landing beaches. This will be a relevant experience for my students because our French 3 curriculum includes a unit about the gastronomy of France and other French speaking countries. Being able to taste authentic French cuisine, to learn about the crucial place of certain foods, the history behind some popular French dishes, will arm my students with detailed knowledge of an important aspect of French culture. This is going to be an enriching opportunity for my students as some have never traveled outside of the US. Also, 64% of our student body is on a free or reduced lunch list, which means that they do not have access to a variety of foods. In addition, this trip will allow them to use all the reading, listening, writing and speaking skills that they have been acquiring and practicing in French class. One of the main goals of this trip is for students to experience the fruits of their hard labor in the language. This will also allow my students to feel confidence in their ability to communicate in French and to strive to connect with our Francophone population here in Western Washington. In our community, we have a sizable amount of Francophone speakers mainly from Congo and other Francophone countries in Africa. My students often comment on meeting Francophones on a regular basis, but often express apprehension because they are not always confident in their language skills. However, being immersed in a French speaking environment will boost their confidence. I want to thank you in advance for your donations that will go to French Connections, a non-profit organization that operates under our school’s non-profit Mariner Marauder Booster Club ( EIN is 91-1716412). The mission of French Connections is to empower kids through travel to French speaking countries so that they become global citizens.

Merci,

Madame Olorunniwo

We are the Marine Science Club at Mariner High School in Everett, Washington. The purpose of the club is to expand extracurricular science opportunities for students through genuine research experiences. The exciting and fun times we share inside and outside the lab are the result of contributions from people like you. With your support, not only can we continue our research projects, but we can continue the student experiences and propel student aspirations. Students here have dreams in diverse fields of science, such as healthcare, medical and scientific research, bioengineering, and more. Your help would not only assist in student discoveries of marine species, but most importantly, be a helping hand in making student dreams a reality.

In this project and in collaboration with marine biologists and geneticists, we investigate the genetic and morphometric variation in inconspicuous organisms of the Salish Sea such as forage fish, shore crabs, beach hoppers, nudibranchs, and snails. The Mariner Marine Science Club has a long-term goal to produce a multi-species genetic profile of Salish Sea organisms while introducing students to the practice of science, genetics, laboratory skills, and marine resource conservation.

Students engage across all aspects of the research, beginning with field work and collection of samples, then students are immersed in laboratory practices such as micropippetting, DNA isolation, gel electrophoresis, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) of microsatellite DNA sequences, and data collection using a capillary electrophoresis genetic analyzer. Further, students also learn to analyze and score data, which is used to produce a published research paper.

Our work is completely funded through fundraising. We are asking for your help to build student experiences by funding the purchase of supplies needed to conduct our research. Thank you for helping make our dreams a reality.

This is a continuation of last year's fundraiser because we did not meet our goals and we are going to start a new project next year. The $6,000 that we raised in our go fund me account last year was enough for us to wrap up the research on the shiner perch.

This year's fundraiser is focused on the future and new projects. We will need substantial funding of $15,000 over the next few years to develop new genetic markers for our future organisms.

Thank you for your support,

Akiesha, Allison, Coree, Emmett, Éowyn, Esther, Jasmine, Jazzy, Johnny, Jon, Leslie, Melli, Rin, Tasmeen, Salma Valerie, Vincent, Victory, and Valeria