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ANNOUNCING THE WINNERS OF THE 2025 PATHFINDER PRIZE!
Hidden Compass offers an annual grant of $18,000 to fund a global expedition of the modern age — an age where discovery is about understanding instead of conquering. Our Pathfinders are multimedia storytellers who bring our community behind the scenes in digital dispatches, and share their expedition through magazine features and a short documentary film.
Voting for the 2025 Pathfinder Prize is now closed, and we are thrilled to announce “Rebel Reef: Seeds of Hope” as the winning team! Their project is audacious and important and we can’t wait to see what comes of their vision. They’ll depart on May 19, 2025 and will be posting dispatches from their expedition exclusively for Hidden Compass Allies. Stay tuned!
Keep scrolling to meet your new Pathfinders …
Pathfinder Finalists
The Rebel Reef: Seeds of Hope
An underwater expedition to explore the audacity of finding hope in the face of climate change, environmental destruction, and the lingering impact of colonization and conquest. In Tela, Honduras, we investigate the following questions: Who does this thriving reef belong to? What’s behind its rebellious success? Who gets to tell its story? And should we dare to hope?
Christian Carias
Expedition Leader
Dr. Joseph Henry
Coral Reef Ecologist, VR Director, and Underwater Videographer
Tiffany Duong
Director, Producer, and Writer
Brynne Rardin
Creative Director, Underwater Videographer, and Drone Pilot
Vinh Pham
Videographer, Photographer, and Drone Pilot
Senyacen Ramirez
Biologist
Antal Borcsok
Dive Shop Partner
About the Expedition
The Rebel Reef: Seeds of Hope
Christian Carias
Expedition Leader
Dr. Joseph Henry
Coral Reef Ecologist, VR Director, and Underwater Videographer
Tiffany Duong
Director, Producer, and Writer
Brynne Rardin
Creative Director, Underwater Videographer, and Drone Pilot
Vinh Pham
Videographer, Photographer, and Drone Pilot
Senyacen Ramirez
Biologist
Antal Borcsok
Dive Shop Partner
View the full proposal here.
Off the coast of Tela, Honduras, the Rebel Reef has been exposed to pollution, agricultural runoff, overfishing, and sewage for a century since banana plantations were planted on its shores. No one thought these conditions — hot temperatures, cloudy water, poor water quality — could support coral. And yet, the reef is biodiverse, abundant, and healthy. Coral cover is between two- and three-times as high as elsewhere in the MesoAmerican reef system. Over a dozen critically endangered species of coral thrive in Tela.
“The Rebel Reef” is a multimedia campaign about the audacity of hope. It takes us to a beach town where corals continue to defy the odds and give us reasons to believe. While stories of reefs too often tell the story from the point of view of the scientist from the Global North, this story focuses on the perspective of local “Aquaman” Christian Carias, a Honduran who wants — more than anything — to share the magic of this rare and defiant treasure with those who live along its shores.
In the modern world, hope seems like a brazen and futile act. Dare we take the risk to hope?
About the Expedition
“The Rebel Reef” will follow Honduran dive officer Carias into the ocean to share the magic of Tela with the world and work for its protection in an uncertain future. Through the lens of Carias’s dive mask, we will engage the local and global community in this unique and important story of resilience, joy, and purpose as we investigate the following questions:
Who does this thriving reef belong to?
What is behind its rebellious success?
Who gets to tell its story?
And, in the face of climate change, environmental destruction, and the lingering impact of colonization and conquest, should we dare to hope?
About the Team
- Christian Carias will be the expedition leader.
- Dr. Joseph Henry will be the coral reef ecologist, VR director, and underwater videographer.
- Tiffany Duong will be the director, producer, and writer.
- Brynne Rardin will be the creative director, underwater videographer, and drone pilot.
- Vinh Pham will be the videographer, photographer, and drone pilot.
- Senyacen Ramirez will be the biologist.
- Antal Borcsok will be the dive shop partner.
Expedition Deliverables
- We will create a short documentary film as well as a 360 immersive dive experience that tells the story of Rebel Reef and allows those on land to experience the reef.
- Because a significant part of our mission is to share this odds-defying reef with the people who live closest to it, we also plan to host two screening events of both films in Tela, Honduras.
- We will produce dispatches, photography, and articles for Hidden Compass Allies and readers
Attend the virtual pitch event on October 22, 2024 from 6:00-7:00 p.m. PT. The event is free, but registration is required. Register here!
*A recording of the team’s pitch will appear here following the event.
Scorched Earth: Australia’s Wildlife and the Devastation of Bushfires
A scientific expedition to combat the notion that wildfire is wholly negative by investigating the impact of devastating bushfires in Australia and answering the following questions: What is the impact of Australian bushfires on the environment beyond the devastation of human settlements? What role does cultural burning play in fire and land management? How can we mitigate the rise of these fires in light of a changing climate and world?
Hannah Schoettmer
Expedition Leader
Robert Boyd
Science Communicator
Charlie Connell
Wildlife Filmmaker
Olivia Hall
Photographer and Writer
About the Expedition
Scorched Earth: Australia’s Wildlife and the Devastation of Bushfires
Hannah Schoettmer
Expedition Leader
Robert Boyd
Science Communicator
Charlie Connell
Wildlife Filmmaker
Olivia Hall
Photographer and Writer
View the full proposal here.
Eastern and southeastern Australia is one of the most fire-prone regions in the world. The area’s eucalyptus-dominant forests and prairies have evolved to depend on regular burns. However, human interference and climate change is reshaping the role of fire in the region.
The negative modern perception of wildfire and the lack of controlled burning leads to a loss of biological diversity and uncontrollable blazes when fires do ignite.
We seek to both combat the notion that wildfire is wholly negative and to investigate the impact of devastating bushfires on animal and plant populations in Australia. Most modern scholarship on bushfires focuses on the human impact with little regard for the effect on plants and animals. Our project differs from contemporary scholarship in prioritizing ecological impact over destruction in human settlements.
When controlled, fire is essential in creating plant and animal diversity and maintaining the health of an ecosystem.
About the Expedition
In July 2025, we will depart on a expedition into the Australian bush to investigate the impact of bushfires on several keystone species and the communities most closely connected to them. Expedition leader Hannah Schoettmer, wildlife filmmaker Charlie Connell, science communicator Robert Boyd, and writer and photographer Olivia Hall will seek to illustrate the depth of the devastation that our changing climate and relationship to nature has created and answer the following questions:
What is the impact of Australian bushfires on the environment beyond the devastation of human settlements?
What role does cultural burning play in fire and land management?
How can we mitigate the frequency and severity of these fires in light of a changing climate and world?
About the Team
- Hannah Schoettmer will be the expedition leader.
- Robert Boyd will be the science communicator.
- Charlie Connell will be the wildlife filmmaker.
- Olivia Hall will be the photographer and writer.
Expedition Deliverables
- As a team of environmental documentarians, our primary deliverable will be a high-quality short documentary film that advocates for wildlife in the Australian bush. Our film will feature experts, conservationists, and local stakeholders, and will visually chronicle keystone species, efforts to rehabilitate wildlife impacted by wildfires, and the steps being taken to prepare both humans and wildlife for future wildfire events.
- We will produce a portfolio of photographs and magazine articles highlighting and indexing the status of keystone plant and animal species and their relationship to fire.
Attend the virtual pitch event on October 22, 2024 from 6:00-7:00 p.m. PT. The event is free, but registration is required. Register here!
*A recording of the team’s pitch will appear here following the event.
Cast Your Vote
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Meet the Advisory Panel
Lola Akinmade
Expedition Leader, 2023 Pathfinder Expedition
Award-winning writer, international best-selling author, and photographer Lola Akinmade is the expedition leader for the inaugural Pathfinder Prize team, “In Tété’s Footsteps: A Cultural Expedition in Greenland.”
Akinmade has dispatched from 70-plus countries for various publications, and her writing has been translated into 18 languages. Her work has appeared in National Geographic, BBC, CNN, The Guardian, Travel + Leisure, Slate, The New York Times, Travel Channel, Adventure.com Magazine, AFAR, Lonely Planet, and many more. She has collaborated with high-profile commercial brands from Mercedes-Benz and Dove to Intrepid Travel and the National Geographic Channel. She is a Hasselblad Heroine.
A sought-after keynote speaker and visual storyteller, Akinmade has spoken at dozens of conferences and trade shows around the world. She has spoken at the Royal Geographical Society and taught at National Geographic Traveler’s Masterclasses. She delivered an inspiring TEDx talk on “The Power of Asking Why Not?” in Stockholm, Sweden.
Akinmade is the founder of Geotraveler Media — a multimedia and travel consulting agency providing a spectrum of visual storytelling and travel media-related services. She has been recognized with multiple awards and nominations for her work, including a Pushcart Prize nomination, and was honored with a MIPAD 100 (Most Influential People of African Descent) Award within media and culture in 2018.
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Sivani Babu
Co-founder / CEO
Sivani Babu is the co-founder and CEO of Hidden Compass. She is an award-winning journalist and nature photographer who has contributed to BBC Travel, CNN, Backpacker, Outdoor Photographer, Iron Horse Literary Review, and numerous other publications. Her work has been recognized in the Best American Travel Writing series and has appeared in exhibits from San Diego to the Sorbonne. Sivani graduated from the University of Chicago with three majors — economics, public policy studies, and political science — and one Lazarused newspaper, the Chicago Weekly News. At the University of Pennsylvania Law School, she taught high schoolers about their constitutional rights. As a Teach for America corps member, she taught eighth-graders about the tangency of math and literacy. After working on a Supreme Court case and representing hundreds of indigent criminal defendants, Sivani left her career as a federal public defender to sail across the most brutal sea on earth. Since then, she has chased storms through Tornado Alley, searched for polar bears in the Arctic Circle, and survived serious injury while celestially navigating the Bermuda Triangle. Sivani is working on her first book, Saving the Night: Shedding Light on the Importance of Darkness.
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Sabine K. Bergmann
Co-founder / COO
Sabine K. Bergmann is the co-founder and COO of Hidden Compass. As an award-winning travel, science, and nature writer, she has contributed stories to dozens of publications — including WIRED, Sierra Magazine, and The Best Travel Writing book series — with a collective readership of tens of millions of readers. Her writing has been featured in exhibitions throughout Europe, North Africa, and North America. As an editor, she has managed content for travel companies valued at more than $500 million. Sabine is a Stanford University-trained environmental researcher and community coordinator who has worked on conservation projects from the Amazon Basin to the Great Barrier Reef. In 2009, she represented Stanford University climate researchers at the United Nations. From 2011-2013, she was the co-host of a live-broadcast environmental radio show in Spanish with an audience of 100,000. She has interviewed sources at sea in a tropical storm, escaped political unrest in the Andes, and discovered cocaine-smuggling coverups in the Caribbean. She has also interviewed earthquake survivors and astrophysicists, mountain biked from the Andes to the Amazon, and chronicled oral traditions passed down through millennia of indigenous history. Headshot by In Her Image Photography. Learn more at www.sabinekbergmann.com.
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Sivani Babu
Co-founder/Co-CEO
Sivani Babu is the co-founder, co-CEO, and creative director of Hidden Compass. She is an award-winning journalist and nature photographer who has contributed to BBC Travel, CNN, Backpacker, Outdoor Photographer, Iron Horse Literary Review,and numerous other publications. Her work has been recognized in the Best American Travel Writing series and has appeared in exhibits from San Diego to the Sorbonne. Sivani graduated from the University of Chicago with three majors — economics, public policy studies, and political science — and one Lazarused newspaper, the Chicago Weekly News. At the University of Pennsylvania Law School, she taught high schoolers about their constitutional rights. As a Teach for America corps member, she taught eighth graders about the tangency of math and literacy. After working on a Supreme Court case and occasionally using unicorn metaphors to explain the realities of sentencing to hundreds of indigent criminal defendants, Sivani left her career as a federal public defender to sail across the most brutal sea on earth. Since then, she has chased storms through Tornado Alley, searched for polar bears in the Arctic Circle, and survived a broken neck and a concussion while sailing through a lightning storm in the Bermuda Triangle. Sivani is working on her first book, Saving the Night: Shedding Light on the Importance of Darkness.
Find your story.
Choose a Theme to Explore
Journey alongside characters in pursuit of elusive truths. Travel through extreme landscapes, to the far reaches of the planet, and into the unknown.
Get to know extraordinary characters from around the world — individuals, cultures, places, creatures, and even objects.
Investigate the relationship between humankind and the planet. Come face-to-face with Nature as an unpredictable danger, a wise teacher, and a precarious organism.
Delve into the dark and difficult aspects of a place, even when the darkness exists only in the narrator. Investigative pieces, historical exposés, and tales of narrators immersed in danger.
Inhabit the past, present, and future of a place. Unearth layers of ancient legends and traditions; probe the transient nature of the current moment; and venture out into prediction, peril, and possibility.
Photo: Dr. Gilad Fiskus
Photo: Sivani Babu
Photo: Kim F. Stone
Photo: Sivani Babu
Photo: Sugato Mukherjee
Photo: Geraint Rowland
Find your story.
Choose a Theme to Explore
Photo: Sivani Babu
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Quest
Journey alongside characters in pursuit of elusive truths. Travel through extreme landscapes, to the far reaches of the planet, and into the unknown.
Photo: Sivani Babu