Our Educational Philosophy for Volunteers

The Dolphin Dreams Images volunteer program is primarily a "hands-on" program. Our video and photo production business is dynamic. There is production work to do every day. We plan to involve you in these activities right away. Similarly, we are in a constant state of snorkel and dive planning as well as gear preparation and maintenance. Our intent is to give you valuable experience with all phases of our operation; from video and photo production work to snorkeling and SCUBA diving.

For the most part, we do not require our volunteers to do a lot of "book work". Some exceptions are the SCUBA courses, but even in these instances, much of the actual work with the textbook is self-paced, independent study and this can be done before you come to Hawaii.





Those that choose to participate in SCUBA certification programs are expected to read the materials in advance and complete the knowledge reviews that are located in the books or online.

After you are selected for the volunteer program and decide you would like to participate in any of our SCUBA certification programs, we will arrange for the text books to be sent to you or make accommodations for this to be done online with the "e-learning" program.

When you arrive on the island, we will go over the knowledge reviews with you to determine if there are any areas of weakness. If there are, we prescriptively teach to those areas that you may not fully understand. This is the best use of time. There is no point in lecturing to you about topics you have demonstrated an understanding of. Once the knowledge reviews are complete, we usually administer a written examination. More recently, we have found that most all of this can be done online. If possible, it is a much better use of time for you to do the academic work before you come to Hawaii..