Formerly known as the Sunrise Movement, the Ohio Collaboration of Youth Climate Leaders (OCYCL) at WHHS received a $5,000 grant. The club has done work that helped pass the CPS Renewable Energy and Electrification Resolution. This requires CPS to purchase electric-powered buses when older, gas-powered buses break down, among other things.
“Rachel Biggert, who’s the branch coordinator, reached out to us and said, ‘you guys are already doing such amazing work, we think it would be really cool if you could extend that work through this grant,’” Audrey Symon, ‘25, president, said. “We [OCYCL] started brainstorming; what can we use this funding for; we started to ask questions to the grant coordinator… then the idea kind of came to fruition and we applied [for the grant].”
Bloomberg Philanthropies is funding the “Seeds of Change Grant,” a philanthropic organization for youth climate action
across the country.
“We’re creating traveling exhibits that are going to teach kids about climate advocacy [and]actions they can take to address climate change,” Simon said.
Club members reach out to Girl Scout and Boy Scout groups as well as different schools to plan these traveling exhibits. Additionally, they also create posters with information about how to be more sustainable and provide details about jobs that are linked to sustainability.
“We saw how our work in terms of policy was having an impact,” Symon said. “We [also] wanted to contribute more to the educational side of addressing climate change.”
With many different elements to the exhibits, the club is hoping to have these held in either classrooms or shared community spaces.
“Some students are working on keeping track of quantitative ways that we can measure our impact out there, so there’s a bunch of little niches where people can get involved,” Symon said.
During meetings, students are able to collaborate with each other as well as with other schools. While each meeting is different from week to week, the club has a structured leadership web. The vice president works on posters; students focus on reaching out to other schools, budgeting and social media; this way everyone can have a role.
“Last year we were focused on getting the Electrification and Renewable Energy Resolution passed by the CPS school board, and we were successful in doing so, which is very exciting,” Symon said.
The CPS Renewable Energy and Electrification Resolution outlines sustainability goals in the district. It does not only apply to buses; things like gas stoves and other appliances in CPS schools must also be replaced with cleaner appliances.
“There is a lot of collaboration talking through what we think is going to work for this educational experience and what we don’t think [is] going to work,” Symon said.