eart19119
Registered: August 2010
City/Town/Province: Philadelphia
Posts: 1
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I had the good fortune to attend Central High School in Philadelphia, a magnet school which has a long tradition of themed days where students have the ability to immerse themselves in the issues surrounding a particular topic. Events such as Women's Day, Career Day, and International Day are always marked on students’ calendars and eagerly awaited, and even garner media coverage.
As a freshman in high school, I attended Central High School’s first Earth Day event, which was organized and run by the Student Environmental Action Society (SEAS). I became more involved in SEAS, serving as their Vice President and President during my junior and senior years. Eventually, I took full responsibility for the planning of Central High School’s Earth Day event for the school’s 2,400 students and entire faculty.
It was very important to me personally that Central’s Earth Day Celebration succeed and improve each and every year. As a special admission high school in an urban setting, Central attracts students from all parts of the city. Some can travel up to two hours each day to attend school, and many of the students come from low-income communities where environmentalism is low on the list of priorities. Therefore, it became even more compelling for me to make sure that one of the primary roles of SEAS was to bring environmental issues to the attention of my peers. I wanted to expose them to the issues in a way where they would be drawn to support environmentalism and conservation, gain a basic knowledge of these topics, and influence their family members and home communities.
During the two years during which I led and planned the SEAS agenda, we were able to invigorate the Earth Day event by engaging numerous speakers, all experts in their respective environmental fields. Students had the opportunity to hear and meet the head of a solar energy company, the director of an environmental documentary film, wildlife and ecology specialists, the editor of a Philadelphia environmental magazine, environmental engineers, members of the EPA, and the Philadelphia Recycling Department.
It was important to me to have Earth Day be very interactive, in order to get my peers as involved as possible in current environmental issues where they could impact change through individual and/or community efforts. Therefore, in addition to having environmental professionals come into the classroom to speak to students, we recruited our speakers, students from our high school, and even students from other high schools to create interactive activities for Central High’s Earth Day. SEAS members and Central High students created informative environmentally-themed ‘games’ for both their peers and teachers. There were trivia games, “how I can help the environment” murals, smoothies made from bike-powered blenders, re-usable water bottles, flowers, and herbs for sale, and a hybrid car built by high school students at the nearby West Philadelphia High School. Captain Planet even spent the day roaming the school spewing environmental facts and singing his theme song in the hall with an impromptu chorus of students as backup.
Thinking back upon the Earth Day events in which I and my fellow and SEAS members invested so much time, I cannot imagine a better outcome. It felt great to see my peers learn about the environment, and enjoy themselves while they did it. I believe that I and the rest of the SEAS members were successful in spreading our passion about the environment. We were able to disperse our knowledge, and the knowledge of many experts from the Philadelphia area, to individuals who would not normally have the opportunity to be exposed to such things. I am convinced that our Earth Day events was successful in allowing students to bring a new awareness to their communities at home and that this will stay with them wherever their experiences may take them.
I believe that awareness programs are one of the most effective ways to impact the environment. Seeing the reactions of my fellow students at Central High School on Earth Day makes me eager to bring the enthusiasm of my high school peers to my college campus. While at Wesleyan University, I hope to bring similar awareness events to the students and professors on campus through organizations similar to SEAS, in the hopes of making learning about environmental issues not simply something that is necessary, but an interactive and fun activity in which all members of a community can participate. By sharing one’s knowledge with a community, the seeds of action and activism are planted in the mind’s of others, to grow not only in their home community, but to disperse wherever they’re life experiences may take them.
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