Students at Seaquam Secondary are holding a region-wide student environmental symposium on how young people can make a difference.
Called Igniting a Spark, it takes place at the North Delta school on Friday, Feb. 21, run by students, for students, to inspire a movement for sustainable change in B.C. Saying the event will be designed to be fast-paced and not just a lengthy, boring lecture, Grade 12 student Lucia Lin, a copresident of the school's Operation Green club, said the symposium is aimed at informing, inspiring and showing students what projects they can help initiate. "We thought it would be a really great way to bring together the schools of our district because from previous surveys we found that student participation for the environment in our district is pretty low compared to Vancouver, Burnaby and Richmond," she said.
"We wanted to have a conference where we could bring all these schools together and really inspire passion and enthusiasm for sustainability action."
Lin noted sustainability and leadership can mean a lot of different things, so at the conference they will explore specific examples of projects that can be done, such as starting a YouTube series, filming a documentary or challenging another school to undertake projects for the environment.
"There's activities people really don't associate with sustainability, that's what we wanted to present, to get people interested about the environment. The focus is to igniting an interest, a curiosity and desire to do something for the environment," she said.
Student co-organizers and environmental club leaders Esther Inlayo and Simran Grewal agreed, saying words such as environment and sustainability are not boring ideas at all, but rather can be highly compelling, prompting students to take action.
The event will have several guest speakers including Veronika Bylicki, who co-created and planned
Plan-It Earth, a youth conference on urban sustainability in 2010 and 2011. She'll talk to students about how to work at the grassroots level in sustainability initiatives.
Also making a presentation will be Maureen Jack Lacroix, co-founder of Be the Change Earth Alliance.
Members of Delta council will also speak to students, providing an opportunity, Lin said, to discuss local environmental concerns.
School board chair Laura Dixon said the district has a longstanding tradition of student leadership, including students from every school participating in the Delta Youth Advisory Council. It's one of the education partner groups the board consults when it comes to major initiatives in the district, she said.
"It doesn't surprise me in the least to see the students taking a leadership role on issues they're passionate about, the way they want to make a difference in the world, to come forward and really show the power of student voices," she said.
For more information about the symposium, visit greensymposium.drupalgardens.com.
