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Greetings!
For many youth in the Sacramento region this fall, going back to school has meant looking forward to a green future. This issue of the GCA's newsletter highlights youth and educators leading the green revolution in our region's schools. |
| UPCOMING MEETINGS AND EVENTS |
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October 2008
Focus: Agenda items include an update on 2008 air quality legislation and a status report on AB32 Implementation and Scoping Plan.
Date: October 23, 2008
Time: 9:00 am
Place: 1001 I St., 2nd Floor, Sacramento, also Webcast
Event Hosts: California Air Resource Board Cleaner Air Partnership Focus: Climate change and the feasibility of alternative energy strategies to reduce our carbon footprint. Lunch is free! Date: October 31, 2008, 11:30-1:30 Place: SMUD's Customer Service Building, 6301 S Street, Sacramento in the Rubicon Room Event Hosts: The Cleaner Air Partnership
November 2008
Climate All Stars Conference
Focus: See Bay Area award winners, updates on current legislation, and hear keynote speakers Adam Kahane and Fran Pavley!
Date: November 6, 2008, 8:00 am -4:00 pm
Place: St. Mary's Cathedral, San Francisco, CA
Event Hosts: Bay Area Leaders
January 2009
Target 2030
Focus: Establish a forum for real action to achieve California's AB32 goals.
Event Hosts: CALSTART
Date: January 14-15 2009
Place: Sacramento, CA |
| Laguna Creek High School Starts Green Academy |
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Last spring, Laguna Creek High School received a grant from SMUD for students to build a portable photovoltaic system. This working system served as fantastic advertisement for the school's Green Energy Technology Academy (GETA), which is in its inaugural year. Students and faculty hooked up the PV system to power popular video games on the school's quad during lunch-experiencing first-hand how their electronics can be powered by the sun. With generated interest, the Academy enrolled forty students in October. GETA is designed as a four year program that starts with the basics and culminates with seniors designing and implementing their own research projects. The Academy is certified with our partner, LEED (Linking Education and Economic Development), and works with programs at Sacramento State and junior colleges in the area. We'll be paying close attention to this program as a possible model for others in the future.
For more information contact Angie Friedrich or Eric Johnson ([email protected]) |
| Placer County Students Share Ideas on Sustainability |
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Students from Placer County are taking on the challenge of leading sustainability efforts within their own schools. Three student representatives from each high school, usually the leaders of the environmental and recycling clubs, will be gathering for an all day Green Youth Summit on October 26th in Roseville's newest green building, the Utility Exploration Center. The students will hear from guest speakers at the Air Resources Board and local venture capital firm American River Ventures about why sustainability is important and a potentially lucrative career path in the future! Through an interactive exercise involving adding leaves to the "wisdom tree," students will have fun while planning together. Students will have the chance to compare notes on what is working at each of their high school campuses, and make a commitment to moving forward in a more coordinated fashion. Students from Placer County hope they will eventually be able link their meetings with partners from other schools in the full Sacramento Region. They will continue to meet bimonthly with a future agenda item to include an international video link with students in the U.K.! |
| Environmental Volunteering Attracts Youth through Hands on Trees! |
There's a HOT new partnership in town. The Sacramento Tree Foundation and the volunteering organization, Hands On Sacramento, are working in collaboration with Sacramento High School to advance service learning with High School youth in the Sacramento region through a new, interactive "Hands on Trees" (HOT) environmental program. The objective is to engage and educate high school youth in urban forest best practices through hands on experiences, while providing students with meaningful community service opportunities. Each session will emphasize reflection, service learning, advocacy, and personal growth. The pilot class began in September and has already had great recruitment success with over 100 students showing interest. Thirty students will be accepted to participate in HOT, and the culminating forum will recruit additional schools to adopt the program. For more information, please contact Meredith King, Sacramento Tree Foundation (916) 924-8733 ext 122 or [email protected]. |
| Green California Schools Conference |
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The greening of California's schools is well underway, and a growing number of the state's 6.3 million students and 307,000 teachers are increasingly feeling the benefits. Last year representatives from all sectors of the education community and hundreds of innovative companies with green products and services convened in Pasadena, California at the Green California Schools Summit. An advisory board co-chaired by David Thorman, State Architect, and Rosario Marin, Secretary of State and Consumer Services and chair of Governor Schwarzenegger's Green Action Team developed the Summit as an event for learning, networking, and planning. This year the Green California Schools Summit will be and opportunity to further the greening of California schools with keynote speakers, Green California Schools Hall of Fame Awards, exhibitions, and workshops at the Anaheim Convention Center. The three-day event will take place December 8-10, 2008. | |
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