Durham, NH-About two-hundred students discussing environmental issues, two dozen presentations and a keynote address from a renowned climate expert rounded out the 10th Annual  KIDS Consortium (www.kidsconsortium.org) Student Summit on Service-Learning.
“It was interesting because it brought a bunch of schools together to go green”, said Kelsa Mercer, a 6th grader from New Hampshire. Kelsa joined groups of students and educators from across New England and upstate New York, who for two days celebrated their work solving problems faced by their schools and communities. During the school year students participated in service-learning projects, a teaching method that links community projects with academic studies.
The theme of the student summit, “Green Thumbs” Up for Green Schools, is part of a Green Schools initiative that also funded 35 mini-grants awarded to New England schools. “Kids get in the community and learn by helping,” said Kaylee Doten from Portland’s Lincoln Middle School. “I know it has been great for me.”
KIDS Consortium’s Fran Rudoff says they could not have pulled all this together without the help of some key supporters. “This was a new approach for us this year. We were able to provide financial support, with special grants from State Farm Insurance, foundations and other businesses, to all of the student teams for “Green” service learning projects.”
Attendees from more than 30 schools came together at the University of New Hampshire on May 25th and 26th. The keynote presenter, UNH professor Cameron Wake discussed the importance of service learning and how it can be used to educate about climate issues. “There is theory and there is practice”, he said. “Service learning enables students to practice, experience and see the world. Simply hearing and reading about theories does not work for many students.”
“I hope students will take Cameron’s message seriously,” says Rudoff. “That the future of our planet is in their hands and that it will require everyone taking small steps at home to be “green”, and much bigger collective efforts to make our communities more sustainable.”
For their service learning project, the students from the Lisbon Central School (Lisbon, CT.) spent the academic year planning the student summit. They learned and applied many skills, such as problem solving and team work. Student planners also learned how important it is to persevere to meet goals.
“It was a great experience to have the summit be our project,” said 7th grade student Albert Tulli. “I had a hand in lining up the keynote speaker and other projects. It was certainly interesting watching it all come together, we started with an idea and now the conference is over.”
The event’s Green Schools theme encourages participants to work together to make their schools and communities more environmentally friendly.  7th grader Morgan Gray said she learned a great deal from students she had never met before. “So many great ideas were presented. Students in different places realized different issues in their towns, shared solutions at the summit, and now the rest of us can take those ideas back home with us.”
Rudoff says if anything, she hopes students will come away from this summit knowing they are uniquely qualified to act. “Individually and collectively, my hope is that through service-learning, students understand how the knowledge and skills they are learning in school can be applied to the real world.”
KIDS Consortium, based in Auburn, Me., works with teachers, administrators and students to involve students in addressing real challenges faced by their communities. Through service-learning, students identify, research and work to address local community needs. With guidance from KIDS, teachers match those projects to school curricula, providing a powerful hands-on learning experience that improves the community and brings academics to life. For more information, visit www.kidsconsortium.org.
In addition to State Farm and Downeast Energy, grants from Hannaford, Wheelabrator, Walmart, Kennebunk Savings Bank, UBS, Poland Spring Water, the Horizon Foundation, the Sam L. Cohen Foundation, L.L. Bean, United Way of York County, Lee Auto Malls, R. H. Reny, Inc., and the Learn and Serve America Program at the Corporation for National and Community Service make this year’s Green Schools Summit possible.
