Churchville-Chili Middle School offers a unique career exploration program to all its fifth-and-sixth-graders. Students can choose to attend monthly workshops with professionals of various career fields. The workshop topics, such as engineering, theatre and drama, government, and public safety, were chosen based on a survey sent to students in order to see what they are interested in.
University of Rochester Recycling Coordinator Amy Kadrie was asked to attend the “renewable energy and sustainability workshop” to talk to the kids of the multiple sustainability endeavors of the University. She talked about the three pillars of sustainability, and how they relate to the University’s project goals. Some of the projects she highlighted were the Move-out Cleanout, InterVol, Nike Reuse a Shoe, the Eco-clamshell program, the Reusable Mug Program, energy saving efforts, UR Connections, and Little Free Library. Quite a lot of information to go through in a small amount of time repeatedly with each small group of kids!
Amy cleary enjoyed participating and said of the event, “My goal was to give them a little taste of multiple subject areas to help teach them that sustainability can really be a part of any career field. The kids had such a great energy and their genuine interest in the subject matter definitely showed. What a fun day!”
Also at the event were; Waste Management to demonstrate how landfill gas is turned into energy, the NYSP2I to talk about what’s inside certain products, a sustainability professor from the University of Arizona to speak about climate change, RG&E to demonstrate wind and hydroelectric power, and representatives from a solar energy company.
A special thank you to Andrea Lynch and her team for including us in this opportunity!
Photo from Westside News Inc.