Jordan Howard inspires me.

Thanks to Surfrider CEO Jim Moriarty for posting this on his blog, Oceans, Waves and Beaches. I stole it from there:)

Green Your Parents

Green My Parents is a partnership between a bunch of amazing organizations that have youth programs, including the Alliance for Climate Education, Kiva.org, and Kids vs. Global Warming.

The goal is for each young person to take the steps outlined in the handbook (and the below video) to green their parents. Then tell their friends about it, so that their friends will green their parents, and so on.

The tagline? How youth can earn over $100 at home, recruit 100 friends to do the same, and save $100 million by Earth Day 2011.

Check out "Green My Parents" superstar Jordan Howard's presentation, here:



You might recognize Jordan - I've blogged about her before, regarding Environmental Charter HS.

Get involved via Facebook, too.

"Plastics Are Forever" Youth Summit. Long Beach, CA. March 11 - 13, 2011 :: Apps Due Nov 30.

The Plastics Are Forever summit, held by the Algalita Marine Research Foundation and sponsored by Disney and Boeing, will bring 100 High School students and their teacher together for a 2 day leadership/training summit, pairing students up with scientists, filmmakers, and media experts to develop action oriented solutions to reduce the problem of plastic waste flowing into our oceans.

In order to come to the summit, students must:
1.) Learn about plastics by watching the educational videos on Plastics Are Forever website, featuring MTV's Buried Life crew, and students from the Environmental Charter School giving the Rise Above Plastics presentation.

Here's MTV's Buried Life crew, doing a promo for the Summit:



2.) Submit an idea for an action oriented solution on the Plastics Are Forever website. Projects must be submitted by November 30th.

The top 20 teams will be chosen to attend the summit. At the summit students will further refine and improve their projects, get trained in public speaking/presentation skills, and develop PSAs with expert filmmakers and actors. While transportation to Long Beach, CA isn't covered, the organizers are providing the top 20 teams with accommodations, food, and local transport.

Teams who are not selected to attend the summit will be able to participate via web chat/teleconferencing. Fabulous! :)

6 High Schools Compete for Obama Graduation Speech :: Voting ends Wednesday!

photo: Jordan Howard, ECHS student and Green Ambassador.

The Environmental Charter High School - a school that has started the Surfrider Foundation's Rise Above Plastic Program - has been selected by the White House to compete with 5 other schools in Commencement Challenge to have President Obama give their graduation speech this year.

The school was selected to compete in Commencement Challenge based on this video submission:



The Environmental Charter High School with the support of Surfrider Foundation’s West LA/Malibu Chapter has delivered the Rise Above Plastics message to more than 8,000 people in Los Angeles as well as trained another group of youth in Pasadena to do the same.

After being one of 6 schools selected, it is now up to the public to vote on the top 3 schools - from which Obama will select one. Voting starts today and ends this Wednesday, April 29 at 9pm PST. Please vote. The Environmental Charter HS is on page 4.