Hello! Alliance for Climate Education (ACE) is on the scene and looking to help high school students plug into the growing youth climate movement. You may have heard of us… especially if you live in Cali or attended Power Shift 2009… but for the thousands of people we haven’t met yet…
Below the fold is the scoop on who we are, what we’re all about, and how to get involved. We’re based in Oakland, CA, and we’ll be in the Chicago-region, Houston, and New England by the fall.
ACE wants to connect with other groups out there led by high school students, groups working with high school students, and anyone else interested in what we do. We are not looking to re-create the wheel, here, so I hope we can connect and multiply our efforts!
Lower Your Emissions, Raise Your Voice
ACE came into existence because we firmly believe that high school students have a powerful role to play in reducing our carbon emissions and raising our united voice for a cleaner, brighter future.
We’re working hard to let high school students around the country know that young people, us – you – our generation, are old enough to take bold, powerful action on the issue of climate change and bring about lasting change on the individual, community, and national levels.
How We Do It: Our trained Educators travel to high schools and give presentations to groups of high school students, ranging from 25 to 2,500, on climate science and meaningful solutions that they can take on. Check out one of our Educators in action at Rodriguez High in California.
We recently partnered with Alec Loorz, a visionary 14-year old student based in Ventura, CA. Not only is Alec the youngest Al Gore trainee, he founded his own nonprofit: Kids-Vs-Global-Warming. Alec gives presentations around the country, and inspires and engages thousands of young people to take action (and many older people too).
Results: We just started giving our presentations in February, and we’ve already spoken with almost 4,000 high school students. We’ve met students in inner-city Oakland, rural parts of Mendocino, Southern California, and even parts of Nevada. They are not only smart and tech-savvy, but they want to meaningfully get involved in curbing global warming. They are ready to plug into the growing youth climate movement that we’ve been cultivating over the past few years.
YEP! Our program doesn’t just stop there, we’re developing a Youth Empowerment Program (YEP!) to support young leaders in the climate movement. Through meaningful partnerships (not reinventing the wheel!) we will look to provide leadership, mentoring and ongoing support for students that take on climate campaigns, start effective environmental clubs, and take action in their communities to Lower their Emissions and Raise their Voice.
If you are a part of an organization that already has a robust program that sounds anything like that, and we haven’t talked to you already (or even if we have), please contact us! We’d love to get to know you, what you do, and what you’re all about.
Scholarships & Grants: ACE offers $2500 scholarships to high school juniors and seniors. Deadlines for scholarships are May 1, 2009. We also offer grants of $10,000-20,000 for schools working to reduce their carbon emissions or implement other innovative projects on campus. The deadline for grant apps is May 8, 2009. There’s just one other catch: you must have seen, or have scheduled, ACE presentations at your school.
Plugging In: Again, ACE is looking to connect with other groups out there led by high school students, groups that work with high school students, and anyone else interested in what we do. We desire to connect and multiply our efforts!
Want to find out more? Check our website: www.climateeducation.org – you can also find us on Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and Youtube.
Go ACE!! Nice first post!!
Thanks! We just got back from a great assembly presentation down in San Jose, at a school where students are starting a veggie garden for their cafeteria!