Frankie Marquez

A bit about me:

My love for the ocean began when my dad put on some snorkelling gear on my head and tossed me into a coral reef in Mindoro, Philippines at the ripe age of 7. It was awesome and quite life changing. I’ve always called tropical waters home but when my family moved to Canada in 2008 my love for the colder temperate waters also grew.

A big catalyst to growing love for the Pacific Ocean was the Vancouver Aquarium. When I was in high school I participated in not one, but two work experience programs. During my first year of university, I was hired as a Camp Educator for the Aqua Camps program! Soon after the Ocean Bridge program was launched, and I became an Ocean Bridge ambassador in 2019. At the time I was working For Parks Canada’s LearnToCamp team where I taught people from all walks of life how to camp safely. However, I was deeply missing the ocean and applied and was hired to be a National Program Specialist for Ocean Bridge! In this role I support the distance learning component of the program and design dialogues, discussions, and community building events.

It is a gift to be giving back to a program that has given me so much; and an even greater gift is getting to connect with like minded youth across Canada!