Youth Voices Are Loud!

My students were privileged to participate in a recent "unconference" put on by our beloved PBS-NC Education Department. Four of my students were chosen to lead as Digital Ambassadors and the rest of my students participated and took pictures and videos. This event was likely the first conference of their young lives! I am fairly certain they were spoiled by the caliber of offerings and the amenities, and I know they were shocked by the way they were treated-- which was as respected voices for their generation.

The event was tiered to include input generated by what the young people wanted to see happen in the hours they were involved. Unlike school or other types of field trips, the students were not lectured to or talked down to, they were peers in building knowledge and understanding around the subject of environmental climate change solutions. The break out sessions were generated by the participants themselves and what they wanted to see happen during the sessions. My students were changed by this event, of that I am certain, and they all left with their personal climate actions which were shared with their peers and will be used during the rest of the course to build confidence and hope for our environmental future. We are the environment, the environment is we! The young people are the future, and from where I sit, that future looks bright!

#environment #youth voices PBS North Carolina #student engagement Ecomedialiteracy.org