The Guy Harvey Foundation’s Partnership with Ocean Exchange
Jessica Harvey, Chief Executive Officer, Guy Harvey Foundation
Every fall, I sit in a room full of student founders and watch them pitch solutions to problems most adults haven’t figured out how to solve. A high schooler explaining a low-cost sensor to track coral bleaching. A college team walking a panel through a prototype for cleaner ballast water. It’s the kind of afternoon that resets my sense of what’s possible for our oceans, and it’s become one of the highlights of my year as CEO of the Guy Harvey Foundation.
The Guy Harvey Foundation (GHF) has partnered with Ocean Exchange for five years, and each year the relationship has deepened. Ocean Exchange is a global ecosystem built to speed up the adoption of workable solutions for healthy oceans and a sustainable blue economy. Now in its 14th year, Ocean Exchange has distributed more than $2.9 million in grants to early-stage, mostly pre-revenue startups; the kind of funding that turns a promising idea into reality.
Each fall, Ocean Exchange runs its main awards program, three global prizes worth $100,000 apiece, alongside a Collegiate Awards track built for earlier-stage student ventures and a high school scholar award that recognizes outstanding concept, design and execution of solutions to conservation issues by high school students using Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and/or Math.
The GHF sponsors prizes in both the collegiate and high school categories, and most years, my team and I sit on the judging panel.
What the Students Teach Me
High schoolers show up with working solutions to problems that stump people twice their age. College teams bring prototypes built to hold up in real field conditions. Several past finalists have gone on to land spots on Forbes 30 Under 30, and it’s easy to see why once you’ve watched them present.
Building the Ecosystem Together
Conservation doesn’t move forward on good intentions alone. It moves forward when young innovators get funding, a stage, and a network willing to open doors for them. That’s what Ocean Exchange builds, and it’s why the GHF continues to support the incredible platform they provide.
This year’s event runs October 25-27 in Fort Lauderdale, FL. I encourage you to share the link to register for the Collegiate Awards with someone you think has the next big idea in ocean conservation. The deadline to register is September 16th.
Link: https://www.f6s.com/2026-ocean-exchange-collegiate-awards/
About the Author: Jessica Harvey is Chief Executive Officer of the Guy Harvey Foundation, where she leads the organization’s work in ocean conservation through research, education, and partnerships across the blue economy.
Preferred Contact: info@guyharveyfoundation.org
Website: https://www.guyharveyfoundation.org
