We are proud to partner with organizations that represent the heartbeat of San Diego, such as Ocean Discovery Institute. Southwest Airlines is proud to support their mission to provide opportunities to students with access to life-changing learning experiences beyond the classroom. Students are not only flying to new destinations, but they are also stepping onto college campuses, expanding their horizons, and seeing themselves in higher education. Moments like these ignite discovery, expand what students see as possible, and help shape their college pathways. When travel barriers are removed, belonging in science grows. The sky is not the limit; it is just the beginning. Ocean Discovery Institute is making meaningful impacts, and we invite you to look at the inspiring accomplishments they have achieved thus far.
Ocean Discovery Institute
Twenty minutes from the Pacific Ocean sits City Heights – a vibrant, multilingual San Diego neighborhood. The students there are as talented and curious as students anywhere. But while the ocean is right there, opportunity is not always within reach.
Ocean Discovery Institute has spent 25 years closing that gap. They work with every student in City Heights’ thirteen schools, from kindergarten through their first job. Ten years ago, one of those students was Susan Garcia, a Hoover High sophomore. She had never met anyone who studied the ocean for a living. Then she applied to Ocean Discovery’s summer research program in Baja California. That summer, she conducted photobiology experiments on sea slugs. She was a scientist.
Fast forward to 2024. Susan, having graduated with a biology degree from Brandeis University, returned to Ocean Discovery to teach the next cohort of students in Baja. The flights from Boston to San Diego were donated by Southwest Airlines.
But flights alone do not create scientists. They create possibility. The students bring their curiosity and commitment. And Ocean Discovery provides the infrastructure that transforms possibilities into achievement.
Susan, now a PhD student in oceanography at the University of Washington, became a scientist. She helped create the path for Isabella to become one too.
As a Hoover High senior, Isabella toured three Northern California universities on Southwest vouchers. Before those flights, she had been comparing schools through websites. After those flights, she knew she had found her fit. The Southwest flights opened the door. Ocean Discovery’s decade of support helped her walk through it.
And Isabella is just one of 7,000. Ocean Discovery works with every student in City Heights, every year, from elementary field trips to the Living Lab through high school research to college graduation and a first job. They show up consistently for every single student.
Southwest has shown up too. As the official airline of Ocean Discovery, Southwest provides flights that would otherwise cost thousands of dollars annually. That partnership frees donor dollars to fund lab facilities, teacher fellows, summer camps, and college mentorship. Both partners understand what most organizations do not. Transformation is not a moment. It is a decade or more. And it takes a community showing up year after year.
It is a proven approach. Ocean Discovery’s students score one-third higher on standardized tests. Ninety percent of high schoolers in Ocean Discovery’s Ocean Leaders program enroll in college. They are five times more likely to earn degrees. Sixty times more likely to work in science careers than their peers.
When Susan conducted those photobiology experiments in Baja California, she became more than a scientist. She became proof of what showing up creates. Students who do not just succeed. They return to inspire others.
This is how change happens: one student at a time, one flight at a time, one generation showing the next that the pathway is real.
