Category: Stories

While the New Year was settling in, our Eco-Leaders were hard at work spreading the word about sustainability and the environment!

Everyday Environmentalist – Teen Edition

Sam Torres and Rylee Goldfarb joined as guest speakers for South Bay Cares’ “Every Day Environmentalist – Teen Edition” webinar. They inspired us with their passion for the environment and shared how we can all make sustainable changes to how we approach fashion, food, and single-use plastic. 

Watch a recording and get wowed by Rylee and Sam!

Get Real with Alissa Stevens Podcast

Grades of Green student Max Riley, co-founder Kim Martin, and Advisor Robyn Murphy spoke about advocating for the environment from home with Ecopreneur Alissa Stevens on her podcast “Get Real with Alissa Stevens.”  

Listen to the podcast and get inspired, here.

The students in Generation-E club at Granada Hills Charter School understand the importance of learning about the environment at a young age. That is why they decided to take action and launch a seven-week environmental education course designed to connect elementary and middle school students with the world around them. Any student can join the class today, by sending an email to generationenvironment@gmail.comand learn more at https://generation-e.webnode.com.

“We hope our classes inspire kids to learn more about the environment and help protect it,” said Sydney Perkins, aged 17, Generation-E leader. 

From environmental justice to National Parks and waste, Generation E’s environmental education course covers a variety of topics that create an accessible and introductory experience for budding environmentalists. 

At the end of the course, participating students have the opportunity to receive a 3D-printed beehive. Generation-E believes that giving students something they can use to support their local ecosystems is a great way to maintain engagement with the environment even after their classes are done.

Generation-E’s is hosting these classes to pursue their mission, which states, “a lack of environmental mindedness amongst Los Angeles residents has damaged the city’s fragile ecosystems-which have historically been some of the world’s most iconic biodiversity hotspots. Our mission is to create greater awareness of local environmental issues and urge our community to become more environmentally friendly.” 

This ongoing course is the cornerstone of Generation-E’s project for Grades of Green’s Climate Solutions Campaign. The Climate Solutions Campaign is a program in which student leaders launch their own climate-focused advocacy projects and programs in communities around the globe. 

Kim Siehl, Executive Director for Grades of Green, noted, “we are constantly in awe of the creativity and ingenuity of our students. What better way for students to learn about environmental issues than from their peers?” 

Do you have an elementary or middle school student that is interested in Generation-E’s free environmental education classes? Send an email to generationenvironment@gmail.com and check out their website: https://generation-e.webnode.com.

Did you know that if you stacked 850,000 sheets of paper, the stack would be taller than the Statue of Liberty? The passionate students of the Ecology and Wildlife Club at Whitney High School know this quirky piece of information because that’s exactly how much paper their school used during the 2018-19 school year. Motivated to take action, the Ecology and Wildlife Club took on the challenge of planting trees to offset the paper that the school consumes to fight global warming and stop the climate crisis.  

This year, the students from Whitney aim to sell at least 110 Gala apple trees to offset Whitney High School’s paper usage and create a healthier community. The sale will run through February 13^th and customers will be able to pick up their tree(s) at a socially distanced drive-thru event at Whitney High School on March 13^th. Currently, the Gala apple trees are priced at $7.30 – a 25% discount – and supply is limited! To purchase a tree, please visit: www.tree-plenish.org/whitney. For more information, refer to the club’s FAQ: www.tinyurl.com/whstrees. 

“Fighting climate change starts with the little things we do. Planting a tree, for example, can go a long way toward reducing the amount of carbon in the atmosphere, while providing cleaner air and water, and adding beauty to our homes,” said Sriya Kotta, 11^th grader and co-leader of the campaign.  

As a service to the Cerritos community, the Whitney’s Ecology and Wildlife Club is partnering with two non-profits, Tree-Plenish and Grades of Green, to host an online tree sale. Trees are critical to maintaining a clean and livable temperature for our planet, as they absorb the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide and can store it safely in their roots, branches, and trunks for decades. The student’s project has the potential to remove 220,000 pounds of CO2 over the lifespan of the trees they distribute!

This is the fourth Grades of Green Campaign that the Ecology and Wildlife Club has undertaken to spread awareness and enact environmental change in the local communities. They have organized projects to compost food waste on campus, constructed an eight-foot model of an ocean wave from plastic water bottles to represent the effects of single-use plastics on marine habitats, and developed a curriculum to educate elementary school students on the dangers of plastic pollution. 

ABOUT TREE-PLENISH

Tree-Plenish is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit whose mission is to create more sustainable schools by replenishing the number of trees used to satisfy each school’s paper requirements.  Tree-Plenish events are planned by student leaders. Leaders determine the number of trees they want to plant in their community. This figure is based on the amount of paper their school uses. Once the number of trees to be planted is determined, they plan and advertise the event, and anyone in the community can sign up to either volunteer as a tree planter on the day of the event or request to have a tree planted in their yard (or plant trees themself). 

Here’s some good news from the last day of 2020! The Beach Reporter featured four of our amazing students, including Rylee who is pictured here winning an award from the South Bay Business Environmental Coalition! 

Recent college freshman, Beatrice Ongawan, was awarded a $5,500 undergraduate scholarship from the Women’s Transportation Seminar (WTS) Orange County chapter at a virtual ceremony on Thursday night. The WTS Foundation provides scholarships to women who demonstrate leadership and interest in the transportation and sustainability industries, ensuring that essential skills and perspectives of women are included in planning the transportation systems of the future.  

While attending Whitney High School, in Cerritos, CA, Beatrice demonstrated initiative and leadership after enrolling her school’s Eco-Club in Grades of Green’s 2019 Water Campaign program. Grades of Green is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that develops the next generation of environmental leaders by empowering students to complete transformative environmental projects in their communities. Every year, the campaign program is open to any grade-school student, includes personalized mentorship and coaching, and is provided free of charge to students and schools.

The Whitney Eco-Club team was inspired to take on the mounting crisis of plastic pollution in their local waterways for their 2019 Campaign project. Under Beatrice’s leadership, the Eco-Club developed a highly innovative campaign that constructed a massive 8-foot tall wave sculpture built from plastic bottles they collected from their high school and community. “We wanted people to be aware of what the plastic pollution problem is in our oceans and what they can do to help,” said Beatrice. 

The sculpture titled “There is No Sea in Disposable” was displayed at the Subaru Pacific Dealership in Hawthorne, CA, and drew attention to the issue of marine plastic pollution. Subaru Pacific and the LAcarGUY dealership family are long-time partners to Grades of Green and are unique in their unwavering commitment to environmental stewardship. LAcarGUY was the first automotive dealer in the country to offer public electric charging stations at its facilities and cares about reducing the company’s carbon footprint through employee education and infrastructure changes. 

Grades of Green was proud to recommend Beatrice for the scholarship due to her outstanding project management skills and talent for marshaling and engaging a large team of peers. Beatrice felt that her years of involvement in Grades of Green’s programs helped shape her personal and professional goals that she now brings with her to her next chapter at the University of California, Berkeley. 

“Grades of Green showed me the kind of positive impact I can have to make a real difference,” she said. “Even though it was small, that’s something I brought to college. I really want to do something that can help the community.”

Beatrice was honored for her scholarship alongside other high school, undergraduate and graduate awardees.