2026 · 2nd Cohort · Jun 16 – Nov 10 · ITA Seoul × Save Heels
14,962 km of coast · 190 monitoring points · 176 still untouched. Over five months, 40 fellows adopt 10 beaches and leave real data on the Care-A-Beach platform.
Video coming soon
5 onboarding videos in the making · Ready before Jun 16 kickoff
1-minute intro
A quote from cohort 1 · what's new in cohort 2 · how AI becomes a teammate. Watch before you apply.
Numbers From The Field · Korean coasts, 2020–2026
Trash items logged via mclear
Citizen plogging activities
Environmental activists on ITA platform
Blind spots · waiting for first record
Mission 2026 · One singular mission
One singular mission — of Korea's 176 untouched coastal blind spots, 10 teams adopt 10 beaches and care for them over 5 months. This is what Care-A-Beach has been building with citizens; this fellowship is the side-project that opens the next ten.
GOAL 01
Beaches adopted by citizens — published on Care-A-Beach
10 teams × 1 beach × 5 months = 10 adoption cards permanently published on caresea.kr — citizens take over after the fellowship ends.
GOAL 02
Korean youth cohort added by you to UNEP GPML
Your 5-month dataset becomes the first attribution in Korea's GPML Country Dashboard contributor list at closing.
GOAL 03
"SEA:CURITY 2026 Annual" English report published
Bilingual annual report shared with GAA partners in 12+ countries.
GOAL 04
First-ever records added to South Chungcheong blind spots
Of 176 unmonitored beaches in S. Chungcheong, at least 3 will get their first verified dataset.
GOAL 05
Teams using AI workflow on real beach data
Documented Claude/Gemini/ChatGPT use cases — Korea's first AI × citizen-science model.
"Citizen-collected, ICC-classified data is what bridges local cleanups to global policy. Without it, we have intuition. With it, we have evidence."— UNEP GPML Webinar, "Evidence-based Policy Making", 20 May 2026 (ITA Seoul attended)
We were in that room. ITA Seoul joined GPML's webinar on how country-level dashboards turn citizen data into policy evidence. We brought the question back to your beach: what does it mean for a 21-year-old in Jeju to add one more verified row to Korea's GPML dashboard? SEA:CURITY 2026 is our first cohort designed end-to-end around that question.
▶ Watch the GPML webinar recordingData Attribution Pipeline · Where your name travels
This is not just volunteering. At each of four stages, your name is recorded and the next stage cites it. From the adoption card (Care-A-Beach) to national statistics (Korea GPML) to international policy (UNEP) — your cohort becomes the first youth row on top of 3.8M citizen entries.
Tag with ICC-19 categories. GPS, time, weight captured automatically.
Ten adoption cards live permanently on caresea.kr — citizens take over.
This cohort enters the Korea Country Dashboard as the first youth-category contributor.
Shared with UNEP's Global Plastics Hub and 12 GAA partner countries.
Sources: UNEP Global Plastics Hub · NOAA Marine Debris Program · Korea GPML Country Dashboard. CC BY-NC 4.0. Contributor attribution required.
Placemaking · You + one beach + five months
A beach is not a place until someone keeps coming back.
Same beach, three visits. See the same shore through three seasons. The first encounter is curiosity; the third is intimacy.
Four people, five months, one shared responsibility. Small enough to not scatter, large enough to back each other up.
Your data leaves your phone, flows through Korea's GPML dashboard, lands in UN global policy material.
What it is · The shape of the program
Most coastal cleanup programs hand you a trash bag and a 3-hour slot. SEA:CURITY hands you one beach, five months, 40 peers, AI as teammate, and one promise: we adopt ten beaches with our own hands so citizens can take over.
PILLAR 01
Your team picks one Korean beach. Visit at least 3 times across summer-autumn 2026. Track its change. Make it a place, not a stop.
PILLAR 02
Use csresea to classify every piece of trash (ICC 19-category). Your name is on the row. Your data joins Korea's coastal dataset and UNEP GPML — verified, attributed, permanent. We don't own the record; we curate it. You're a co-author.
PILLAR 03
Optional Claude/Gemini/ChatGPT license (₩25-30K from team stipend). Use AI to analyze your dataset, draft your SNS posts, translate for the global feed.
6 Tracks · Six ways to hold up the adoption
The core mission is ten teams adopting ten beaches and publishing them on Care-A-Beach. The six tracks are the tools that hold those adoptions up — planning, content, research, ESG, press, coordination. Pick 1–3 on application, pick your "primary" at the Nov 10 Demo Day. After five months you'll have verifiable, not abstract, language for your story.
"I designed and ran a coastal campaign from scratch."
Maps to: Service planning · Public sector · NGO leadership · ESG strategy
"I turned a forgotten beach into a story people kept sharing."
Maps to: Brand marketing · Social media · Content strategy · Creator economy · K-fandom collaborations
"I collected and analyzed marine debris data with my own hands."
Maps to: Graduate research · Ministry of Environment · Public institutions · Environmental consulting
"I connected SaveHeels and partner ESG funds to the adopted beach."
Maps to: Corporate ESG · Sustainability management · Impact consulting · CSR partnerships · 1365 volunteer-hour ops
"I reported from coastal sites and published the story."
Maps to: Reporter · Broadcasting PD · Environmental media · Long-form writing
"I led 10 people to adopt and care for a local beach for 5 months."
Maps to: HR · Local government · Public organization · Community management
Global Recognition · Where your work travels
The primary deliverable over five months is ten beach-adoption cards published on Care-A-Beach (caresea.kr) — citizens take over from there. ICC-classified data enters the Korea GPML Country Dashboard youth category as the first row, and the English Annual is shared with UNEP GPML and 12 GAA partner countries. Diplomatic, fandom, and content expansion abroad come next — only after these adoption assets are in place.
Your team's ICC-classified data flows into the global plastic pollution database and Korea Country Dashboard.
Bilingual (KR/EN) certificate signed by GAA. Recognized by partner programs in 12+ countries.
Korean youth cohort recognized in the global beach cleanup network (UN SDG 14 partnership).
Co-resourced with provincial sustainability programs. Your activity counts toward provincial reporting.
The real promise: ten beach-adoption cards live on Care-A-Beach. Everything else — funding, AI, advisers, research, content — is a tool that holds those adoptions in place.
Cohort History · We didn't start today
SEA:CURITY has run twice before. Each cohort learned. The 2026 cohort is built on what worked, what didn't, and what's now possible because of AI.
ITA Seoul's first attempt at a youth-led adopt-a-beach supporters program. Recruitment closed September 18, 2022. Small-scale pilot; valuable lessons about cohort cadence and team dynamics — the seed that became today's program.
February 2024: ITA Seoul launched "Earth Investment Insurance K" (envest.kr), where citizens earn credits via daily Z-SDGs zero-waste actions and invest those credits into environmental restoration products. SEA:CURITY became one of two flagship products — "10,000 investors' ocean reserve — fishing-debris removal across 4 cities on Korea's west coast, 20 km total." The other: 리:포레스트 (forest reserve).
SEA:CURITY single-day expansion at Incheon's Seonnyeo Rock Beach (Eulwang-dong). Meeting point: Incheon Airport (shuttle to beach). Benefits: ₩150,000 per team for transit and meals, Kyobo Life · Life Insurance Council supporter certificate, 2 volunteer hours, plogging kit rental, participant rewards. Validated the single-day open-participation format that later expanded to Jeju.
November 1, 2024: ITA Seoul officially designated by the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries as the national operating office for Korea's Adopt-a-Beach program. Role: participant recruitment, activity management & evaluation, marine environment education, partnership with local governments. This designation institutionalized SEA:CURITY as part of the national infrastructure — not just a single NPO program.
May 16 – October 24, 2025. 30 students recruited nationwide as individuals or 2–3 person teams. ₩200,000 per team. Activities: cleanups on World Ocean Day & Coastal Cleanup Day, partner-adopted beach monitoring, content creation. Benefits: completion certificates, SaveHeels eco-footwear (1% for the Planet — 2nd year), 1365 volunteer hour certification, excellence awards with national-meet participation. The format that 2026 inherits and doubles.
10:30–12:30 at 제주시 조천읍 조함해안로. ~20 participants matched into teams of 4. Activities: marine debris collection + data logging, SNS content publishing, policy-suggestion action reports. Bonus volunteer hours for SNS sharing. Co-organized with KT&G — proved the cross-region partner expansion model.
40 students (10 teams × 4), ₩300,000 per team (+50% vs 2025), 6 tracks, optional AI license (Claude/Gemini/ChatGPT), bilingual GAA certificate, GPML data donation at closing, English annual report. The first cohort designed end-to-end around AI workflows on ICC-classified marine debris data. Built on 4 years of accumulated learning — pilot (2022) → platform (2024) → official cohort (2025) → AI-native cohort (2026).
1st → 2nd · An honest ledger
No estimates, no aspirations. Only what was verified in the 2025 cohort. The 2026 deltas are promises — to be verdict-checked on the same table at the Nov 10 Demo Day.
| Axis | 1기2025 (verified) | 2기2026 (promised) |
|---|---|---|
| Span | May 16 – Oct 24 · 5 months | Jun 16 – Nov 10 · 5 months |
| Cohort shape | 30 students · individuals or 2–3 person teams | 40 fellows · 4 × 10 fixed teams+33% |
| Per-team funding | ₩200K · single disbursement | ₩300K · 3 installments + SaveHeels backing+50% |
| Core mission | Cleanups + monitoring partner-adopted beaches | 10 plastic-buried beaches adopted by citizens (permanent on caresea.kr) |
| Tracks | Single (cleanups + content combined) | 6 tracks (planner · content · researcher · ESG · press · coordinator) |
| AI as teammate | — | Claude · Gemini · ChatGPT (pre-filled launchers)NEW |
| Demo-Day deliverable | Certificate · excellence awards · 1365 volunteer hours | + GPML data donation · KR/EN Annual · UNEP-cited attribution |
| Global recognition | 1365 hours · SaveHeels (1% Planet, 2nd year) | + GAA bilingual certificate · shared with 12 GAA partner countries |
* 2025 completion counts and contribution totals are still being finalized; verdict goes live on the auto-report (/sea-curity/report/2025) right after the Nov 10 Demo Day. This table records only structural promises, not unverified estimates.
Timeline · Five months, three activities, your pace
AI Lab · Co-pilot for the adoptions
Which of the 176 untouched beaches to adopt first · how to organize ICC-19 data · how to write the adoption card so citizens want to take over — Claude, Gemini, and ChatGPT are teammates for all of it. Adviser Kwak Yong-seok (NDMI · 0→100 ODA) accompanies the outward-expansion phase.
Try it now · One click to open the chat
Sample data, an adoption-card draft, a 5-month activity log — pre-filled prompts with real scenarios. Run them on the spot, no signup or payment; if they fit your hand, we sharpen them further inside the fellowship.
Why this tool? Strongest reasoning over long tabular data and qualitative synthesis. 200K context.
Our team collected ICC-19-classified data at Hamdeok Beach over five months (sample numbers): - Cigarette butts: 412 (monthly: 89, 76, 82, 78, 87) - Plastic bottles: 87 - Styrofoam fragments: 156 - Fishing line: 23 m - Single-use cups: 47 Please write three things: 1) The TOP 3 polluters and their likely sources (marine fishing vs land runoff vs tourism) 2) A one-paragraph summary of the 5-month trend (verifiable language only, no abstractions) 3) ONE priority to monitor in the next five months and why
Why this tool? Strong Korean tone + Google Search grounding. Best fit for adoption-card editing.
Polish this adoption-card draft so a citizen reading it says, "I'll take this beach over." Constraints: - Within 5 sentences - No comma-separated noun lists (avoid report tone) - Warm voice: "together," "cared for," "passed on" - One or two verifiable numbers (kg, frequency, span) [Draft] Hamdam Beach sits on Jeju's west coast and our team adopted it for five months and did twelve cleanups and recorded 1,248 items across ICC-19 categories and permanently registered every coordinate, photo, and data point on Care-A-Beach (caresea.kr) so citizens can take over...
Why this tool? Most universal résumé/LinkedIn voice. Trained across many industries.
My SEA:CURITY 2026 record over five months (sample numbers): - Adopted Hamdeok Beach (Jeju west coast) - 12 cleanups · 87 kg total · 1,248 items across ICC-19 categories - Registered as a first-row youth contributor in Korea's GPML Country Dashboard - Co-author (1 of 3) on the English Annual Report Please write two things. Use only verifiable words — no abstractions like "growth," "as a leader," or "environmental protection." 1) ONE LinkedIn post (English, 4–6 lines, strongest number first) 2) ONE cover-letter line (verifiable outcome, under 25 words)
* A new tab opens with the prompt already filled in. Free accounts on Claude / Gemini / ChatGPT are enough. Responses stay in your account — we do not receive any data.
FAQ · Honest answers
5 minutes · No coding · Individual or team applications welcome
This isn't a task we hand out. It's a seat at the table we're still building.
