After a day to detox from finals week, a group of Davenport high school students spent part of their Sunday rooting at the Living Lands and Waters tree nursery.
This is the first official project for the group, now known as “DCSD Green Teams”—an initiative spearheaded by North High School senior Landen Freeman after working with Green Iowa AmeriCorps this summer.
“What I’m doing is trying to formalize our environmentalist groups in high schools in the district,” said Freeman. “These independently existing things, I’m just doing my best to create an opportunity for them all to work together and be recognized as an environmental initiative by Davenport high school students.”
Part of Freeman’s efforts include creating a DCSD Green Teams website.
“On the website, I created a page with a lot of green organizations in Iowa, Scott County and Davenport, hoping that green teams in high schools will use that, branch out and make partnerships,” he said. .
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Freeman said the group’s sponsor, North science teacher Laura McCreery, a frequent volunteer with Living Lands and Waters, connected the students with the organization for the tree nursery project.
“That’s how we made it happen [the project]. We don’t know if this necessarily means a long-term partnership with Living Land and Water, but we are always looking to help others. This is more than environmentalism, it is environmental stewardship and leadership. Collaborating with others in the community is an important role … we haven’t set up any official partnerships yet, but that’s something we’ll explore in the future. We are trying to branch out now and make important connections, so that way we can start making a big impact. ”
Although only six students — five from North and one from Central — participated in Sunday’s tree nursery project, McCreery was happy to see this student-led initiative come to fruition, calling the DCSD Green Team ” change makers.”
“It’s very rewarding to see them take charge and want to be the change,” he said. “That’s very empowering … this is the first student-led initiative outside of our building, and we hope to grow every year.”
An upcoming partnership with the DCSD Green Team is the non-profit “Tree-Plenish” across the country, to provide tree saplings to be planted throughout the Quad-City community.
“It’s a huge undertaking,” he said. “Tree-Plenish has a class that we will take and in December we will start fundraising so that the saplings we give out are free to the community, and we need to find local partners to help distribute them in March and April. . It’s a fairly extensive project to offset our carbon footprint.”
Two other members from North, seniors Emma Jauron and Aliyah Flores, agreed that it is important to promote environmental efforts and awareness in high schools.
“A lot of kids just don’t know about these issues; not everyone takes environmental science class. They go through earth and space science or biology, but not everyone can pay attention,” Jauron said. . “When you have groups like ours to share that knowledge and all the things we can do to help, it helps people start at a younger age. When you join the club, you opens your eyes to these issues.”
“Once you start younger, it almost becomes a habit,” added Flores. “Once we leave high school and go to college, we can spread the word about how to help the environment. We have these solutions that people may not think about.”
Jauron, president of North’s environmental club, is eager to start by making a noticeable difference in his own school.
“I’m excited to see how much recycling we can save, and just see the students start being more responsible,” she said.
Flores took the lead in promoting the club to other students, through bulletin boards.
“We’re going to put things out there that people don’t realize and kind of grab their hearts. We’re going to be like ‘hey, here’s what’s happening and how is it going to make a negative impact, we to make a positive impact instead by doing ‘this or that,’ and providing solutions,” he said. “You don’t have to go to every meeting to make a difference—even doing small things. things like using something other than plastic bottles have an impact.”
So far this year, North’s green team has been going around homeroom classes and sharing an informational video about how to properly recycle. Jauron said that they also plan to sell the disposable straws to the students. Flores said that they also want to promote the construction of the school through announcements
Freeman is the student school board representative for North. He hopes to use his unique platform to promote growth for DCSD Green Teams.
“There are a lot of really good conversations happening in our green teams and in our environmental science class. I was happy to be able to go and see a lot of presentations about environmental issues directly in our community and region from of the students in the class, and there are a lot of great ideas,” he said. “I continue to navigate my role, but we hope to bring many of these ideas and concerns further into development, and make proposals to bring to the school board to bring together – talk to that level. There are some really exciting things at the board level.”
“High schools have a unique position in their community … we often hear that the youth of our world are the future, and if they speak well, they have the best opportunity to be heard,” said Freeman, noting how adaptable environmental science is as a career field. “There are many opportunities to make an impact, but also to be paid to do so.”
Looking ahead, the three students plan to continue working with the environment or continue after graduating high school.
