Climate change is an issue that plagues the world and everyone who lives in it. In recent years, there has been more of a push to attempt to restore the state of our planet from both activist groups and international governments. Students in Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) have noticed this issue similar to millions of others globally. One step towards a solution is the Youth Climate Summit. More and more MCPS students addressed the need for action against climate change. The summit consists of a portion of a science grant from Howard Hughes Medical Institution, which usually focuses on biomedicine, along with a 5-week long internship over the summer for students to plan this event for next year. This event will be held on March 5, 2022 and will be the first summit in Montgomery Country towards climate change.
According to their website, the summit is “a full-day conference designed to educate MCPS [high school] students about climate change and equip them with the tools to create climate action projects in their communities.” The Summit will be held virtually due to COVID, and the event will go from 8:00 a.m. – 3:35 p.m. The schedule consists of various speakers and activities that tie into the central focus of the summit. The conference will focus on how climate change impacts both the individual and their community. According to MCPS’s Instagram, students will “learn how art, STEM, policy, and education play a role in climate action through engaging workshops” and “hear from experts about the latest research-based climate change information.” Students will also be given the opportunity to network with their peers across the county to learn about successful climate action.
The summit gives students opportunities beyond reducing and solving climate change. The skills students will gain from this summit can be used for activism outside the issue of climate change. Skills like networking are essential for advocacy, and learning how to do that within an issue that has a lot of significance to you can be extremely useful. Climate change is an urgent matter and having groups of students advocate, brainstorm, and work with corporations shows their commitment to our planet. The summit exemplifies not only how a younger generation prepares to address such a pressing issue, but displays how students are able to get support from administration within their school system to listen to their ideas, and even get a grant to fund this project.
Advocacy is about bringing people together through a shared issue. Advocacy always uses our voices to fix the problems we see today and MCPS’s youth summit is no exception; it is bringing us closer locally to work towards solving climate change.
Article by Maru Amtataw of John F. Kennedy High School
Photo courtesy of MCPS Youth Climate Summit