10 high school students win grants for environmental projects
Press release:
Ten high school students with great ideas and $1,000 will each be undertaking projects including building organic gardens, producing model environmental houses and initiating pilot programs for sustainable lunch trays in their school cafeterias after being selected as this year's Planet Connect grant winners.
Planet Connect (www.planet-connect.org), created in partnership with The Weather Channel, offers environmentally minded teens job and volunteer opportunities, information on careers and universities and social networking capabilities allowing them to share success stories and environmental tips with peers around the country and the world.
This year's grant winners will complete the projects - which they designed themselves - and produce photos and videos of their projects for Planet Connect's Web site. Most grant winners will also work in summer environmental internships in their communities.
"This is an impressive group of students who are not only demonstrating a commitment to protecting the environment and appreciating nature, but have come up with creative and effective ideas for solving the problems that they see," said Diane Wood, president of the National Environmental Education Foundation. "Their unique projects will inspire their classmates and their communities, and we're proud to support their efforts."
"The Planet Connect grants are great, because they offer students an opportunity to positively impact their communities and environment," said Bennie F. Adams III, a ninth-grade English teacher at Duvall High School in Lanham, Md. "The internships also offer the students an opportunity to gain valuable work experience to help prepare them for the green economy."
The grants were made possible with funding from the NBC Universal Foundation.
In addition to devising the projects, the students also produced detailed budgets, enlisted the help of community members and classmates and will seek media attention when their projects are completed. The grants were made possible with additional funding from the NBC Universal Foundation.
Planet Connect 2010 grantees:
Daniel Brooks, Miami, Fla.
"Every Drop Counts," water conservation/usage project
Kevin Dumler, Upland, Calif.
"Upland High School Composting," composting/recycling program
Andrew Hayford, Cape Neddick, Maine
"Blue Ocean," ocean pollution education campaign
Laura Hurst, Erie, Pa.
"Green Design Dollhouse," model eco-home
Lisa Junta, Springfield, Va.
"Green Tray Project," reusable lunch tray pilot program
MerryJean Losso, Baton Rouge, La.
"Growing Green and Growing Clean," school garden project
Sana Neseem, Avenel, N.J.
"Eco-Motion," energy saving pilot program
Reynaldo Pacheco, Porterville, Calif.
"EcoGarden," school garden project
Sarah Reid, Edmund, Okla.
"Serve Our Food, Serve Our Earth," sustainable cafeteria pilot program
Mariama Souley Dounda, Waldorf, Md.
"Plastic Bottle Art," litter/recycling awareness project
To learn more about each project, visit: http://www.planet-connect.org/
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