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Health & Fitness

West Potomac Students Make a Change

A select group of West Potomac High School students are attending a Global Student Leadership Summit in Costa Rica.

While many of us understand that pollution from our industrialized world is negatively impacting the environment, we often do not know – or care – enough about the cause to make a change. Upon starting my senior year at West Potomac High School, that was exactly how I felt. I knew Global Warming and greenhouse gasses were problems in the environment, but I did not do much more than recycle used cans and newspapers to help make a change.

This year, I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to do something more. I, along with my AP Environmental Science teacher and six peers, will be traveling to Costa Rica for 10 days to meet with students from around the world at EF Education First’s Global Student Leaders Summit. We will be spending our time there learning about the current environmental crisis and what Costa Rica has done to minimize their ecological footprint. At the end of our journey, to celebrate Earth Day, we will be attending a Global Students Leader Summit to share our ideas for making the world a cleaner place.

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As part of the 10-day experience in Costa Rica, I’ll be using this space on the Patch to blog about West Potomac’s experiences and share photos, videos and more. You can also follow our experiences at EF’s Global Student Leaders Summit on Facebook at www.facebook.com/EFSummit.

Before this year, I never considered myself to be the “go-green” activist type. I am the editor of the school newspaper, a dedicated swimmer, and an even more dedicated student. Like in any other class, I expected to learn my AP Environmental Science material enough to do well on the test and soon after forget what I learned and why it was important. But with each lesson, I found myself becoming more interested with what most people do wrong from an environmental perspective. I wanted to come home and tell my family why they should never use a plastic water bottle or leave their car running. Despite knowing the recitation of environmental awareness facts is not the most enjoyable dinner conversation, I was constantly thinking of things we should be doing differently and how easily the changes could be made.

Unfortunately for the environment, change is our biggest problem. People like what they are accustomed to, not what some green hippie says is the way to live their life. This common stereotype of a globally aware citizen is yet another thing our society needs to get over. Truth is, the Earth is our home and despite any reservations towards change, we need to protect it.

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If an entire culture of young adults understands the importance of a clean earth, people will be willing to turn out the lights and use fewer fertilizers without needing to be convinced it is necessary.

I am extremely excited to experience a new culture and share my ideas with students from around the world through EF Education First’s Summit. Even before the start of the trip, we have been asked to identify an environmental problem in the community and think of a solution. Three other seniors from my high school and I have already begun working on our individual “Glocal Challenge,” and we can not wait to develop it further and share our ideas at the summit.  

Look forward to sharing more soon!

 

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