Everything Under The Sun: Telling The Environment's Story In The Voices Of Youths

Youth hands-on environmental activities become part of their story.

Have you ever learned something so important to you and your life that you just wanted to shout it from the mountain-top? Maybe, the whole world could hear you! With today's technology, that's not just fantasy, but reality. If only you could get enough people to notice.

Actually, Susan Silber had a similar vision after working for twenty years in the field of environmental education, taking youths into the field for direct contact with natural settings. It resulted in her putting together an online platform, NATURE'S VOICES PROJECT, where students in grades 6 to 12 could tell their stories about their experiences in environmental education. It's a place where they can share the powerful impact of being in contact with nature when they undertake an activity for the first time that gives them an appreciation of just how vital it is to be aware of always thinking and acting in environmentally sensitive ways.

Ms. Silber explained, "99.9 percent of the time these many and varied experiences had a positive effect on young people, many of which were life-changing. The outcomes were as varied as the experiences; some programs improved academic performances; others calmed students down through direct experiences into nature; others improved children's health and reduced obesity rates. After creating, coordinating, and raising funds for these environmental education programs and others for more than two decades, I have become acutely aware that despite the immense and varied benefits these programs give our youth, our schools, our communities, and the planet, they remain underfunded and undervalued.

Since it first started, the web platform has become financially sponsored by the Green Schools Alliance. Also, every year, Nature's Voices Project holds a Student Stories Contest, in which student writers describe how they were transformed by an experience with the environment.

Students from the Green Schools Initiative also are part of Nature's Voices Project.

Last year's Grand Prize winner was Eden Vitoff from Chicago, Illinois. In his story, Eden recalls when he first became interested in the environment when he was in seventh grade and then what inspired him to create the Green Lyfe Network, which helps students throughout the State of Illinois connect with environmental projects. As he explains, "We are the first generation to see the effects of climate disruption and the last generation that can take action to solve it."