SASE Founder, Kellie Daniels on the origin story of Students Against Species Extinction
Students Against Species Extinction (SASE) was born out of a need to offer practical experience to my students in the Media department at Newcastle University and to connect all of the environmental projects I'm working on, so really it's a win-win. For years, I have worked as a communication consultant for environmental Non-governmental organisations (NGO) and sharing this experience with students by allowing them to gain access to practical experience was a natural next step.Â
I was able to recruit academic SASE mentors from across disciplines and from universities from around the world and collectively we decide on an environmental NGO to highlight and work together to help them achieve their objectives; which we do through research, community engagement, media campaigns and legislative initiatives. Today we have mentors and students from England, Scotland, America and Africa and we are expanding to new places every year.
The SASE is an amazing project, and our hard work has been recognised by the United Nations (UN). In March 2025 the SASE were invited to be an official ‘Actor’ for UN environmental initiatives. This affiliation will allow our students and mentors to have an incredible platform to highlight their work and will open doors for further collaborative opportunities in the future.
Last year, the SASE launched the GROW campaign, a membership campaign for local species extinction charity Cross River Gorilla Project (CRGP). GROW was created by our UG Media students and presented at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh during their annual fundraising ball. The funds raised for CRGP helped to purchase camera traps to support the efforts of rangers in the rainforest of the Lebialem Highlands, which is the habitat of the cross river gorilla. We worked across departments with SNES and Law to approach our work holistically and the students gained authentic international work experience and rewardingly did their part to help protect the world’s most endangered gorilla.
This year we are working on a couple of different projects. In March, we are launching the 3/300 campaign on behalf of CRGP here in the UK, which is again developed by our UG Media students from the MCH3013 Global PR module. This campaign asks people to participate in 3 sports challenges to save 300 gorillas as there are less than 300 critically endangered gorillas remaining in South West Cameroon. Our SASE mentors and students in Africa and America will execute the campaign with local adaptations which gives a truly global approach to CRGP and their efforts.
The other project we are focusing on this year is the Louisiana Wetland Project. We are working with our SASE mentors and students at Nicholls State University in South Louisiana who brought this initiative to the table. Academics and students from Nicholls will be traveling to Newcastle University to deliver a presentation on coastal restoration this March. During their visit they will also meet with our Marine Biology team at Dove Marine Laboratory and learn about coastal restoration efforts and research here in the UK. Additionally, Nicholls have invited the PR programme from MCH including myself to speak at a conference this July and we will travel to South Louisiana to better appreciate the plight of Louisiana coastal erosion and its effects on the local community.
As I am originally from Grand Caillou, Louisiana (which is about as far south as you can get in the States) this project is very close to my heart. The community I grew up in will not exist for my grandchildren to visit, which is hard for me to type never mind accept. The Louisiana coastline is eroding at a rate of about a football pitch every 100 minutes due to a combination of rising sea levels, oil and gas exploration and levee construction. These vulnerable communities, which have large indigenous populations, are the United States’ first climate change refugees. Like too many other communities around the world, communities in South Louisiana have lost their land, their way of life, and their sense of place and are in desperate need of support. The SASE will continue to highlight and work with our SASE mentors and students in Louisiana to tackle some of conservation's biggest challenges.
Our goal is to highlight and contribute to the global environmental conversation and to develop creative ways to explore conservation challenges across the globe. If you are interested in becoming an academic mentor or student member or if you know of an NGO that could really use our help please get in touch (kellie.daniels@newcastle.ac.uk). I hope you have been inspired to be a part of the global conversation; if you are interested in attending any of the events mentioned above, please check out our events page for more details.
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