There’s a lot of talk about college students getting involved in the global warming movement, but what about younger students? It’s never to early to start caring for the environment, being a positive force in your community, or, for that matter, getting involved in 350.org.
I got out of the office last week and took the train over to Lincoln High School on the other side of San Francisco. Lincoln sits on a tall hill looking over the Pacific Ocean. It was hard to believe looking out over the water, but across the ocean, one of our newest 350.org field organizers, Abe Woo, was also preparing a series of high school presentations in Malaysia. Talk about acting globally! The students at Lincoln were great (check out the photo in this post) and had me excited about getting high schools around the world involved in the 350 Climate Day this October 24.
If you’re a high school student, teacher, or parent (or know someone who is), make sure to sign up your school for October 24 and check out some of our friends and allies who work directly with high schools, like the Alliance for Climate Eduction. Here’s some more information about what’s happening over at Lincoln HS from our friend Vanessa Carter:
The Environmental Service Learning Initiative (ESLI) is a new program working with partnering organizations Global Exchange and Community Educational Services to bring empowering environmental service learning to urban public schools in San Francisco, CA. ESLI is dedicated to bringing stakeholders who have previously been excluded from the environmental movement into leadership positions working towards environmental justice.
The 1st Annual ESLI Lincoln Earth Day Celebration was a great success! Earth Day on May 13th and 14th? Every day is Earth Day! Students and teachers devoted 2 days of instructional time to cultivating awareness about the role of young people in the sustainability movement. Guest presenters included: Alliance for Climate Education; Youth Speaks; Rock the Bike, Grind for the Green, Brower Youth Awards, Bike to School Day, SF Department of the Environment, Students for Sustainable Futures, North Face and district-wide ESLI staff. The range of interactive and hands-on workshops, assemblies, films and lunchtime activities reflect the commitment of the LHS community to greening their campus and beyond!
We are also celebrating Lincoln High School’s new Green Academy! Thanks to the hard work of LHS teachers Jeff Kim, Valerie Ziegler, Kevin Keen and Josh De Wolf in collaboration with ESLI’s School Program Development Coordinator, Vanessa Carter, LHS is the first high school in SFUSD to receive one of 42 Green Academy grant awards from the California Partnership Academy. ESLI will be teaching an elective next fall in addition to supporting LHS teachers in the integration of empowering environmental service learning curriculum into their academic classes.