From The Lions Roar, TLS School Newspaper
By Jakey Lebwohl
To many young people, terms like climate action and environmental justice are just abstract phrases. Some students feel dedicated to the cause but are unsure how to act. Still others feel hopeless about climate change, under the impression that it is unavoidable and that nothing they do can have a real impact. At The Leffell School, a passionate group of students are working to remedy this. The Leffell Climate Initiative is a club focused on bringing the issues of climate change to the forefront of our school’s consciousness, allowing every member of the community to make a difference.
Like many teenagers, the club’s co-founders were always interested in environmental justice but weren’t sure how to get themselves involved. “I’ve always been really interested in the environment and climate change,” sophomore Jack Kriegel said. “This year, I heard about this organization called the Jewish Youth Climate Movement, or JYCM. They’re the perfect resource for setting up clubs like ours, and I couldn’t pass up the opportunity.”
Kriegel and junior Harry Lackowitz are co-leaders of the Climate Initiative. The Jewish Youth Climate Movement was the perfect gift to jump-start the club’s opening.
“JYCM is a youth-led movement that provides teens with resources to start their own climate action groups across the country at their synagogues or schools,” Lackowitz said. “They’ve given us trainings, presentations, and activities that have been a huge help to us at our club meetings.”
The Leffell Climate Initiative has begun an impressive number of projects in its short lifetime. “We created Earth Day programming, which includes turning off the lights during Earth Day and designing informative posters,” Kriegel said. “We’re also looking forward to partnering with other clubs around the school. For example, the middle school has a farm-to-table club that we hope to get involved with.”
Among all the projects of the initiative, one of its most exciting prospects is developing a climate action plan. “The climate action plan is a way to set concrete goals around our environmental impact,” High School Science Chair Vivian Nadasdi said.
Mrs. Nadasdi is the faculty advisor of the Leffell Climate Initiative club. “The goals of our action plan include promoting recycling in the classroom and composting in the lunchroom, and possibly partnering with E-squared [engineering class] to make these processes easier for students.”
However, Mrs. Nadasdi’s vision for the Climate Initiative goes beyond individual projects such as the climate action plan. “Years ago, students used to bring their own plastic bottles,” Nadasdi said. “Now, it’s part of the culture where we bring in reusable bottles, which saves a significant amount of plastic. We want to cause that kind of cultural change throughout the school again.”
The best success for the Initiative would be if students stopped associating environmental consciousness with the club, and it simply became part of the school’s culture.
Despite the long list of projects the Initiative has undertaken, there is one goal that is front and center in the minds of the club’s leaders. “If everybody in the school decided to be conscious about recycling tomorrow, we could really improve our environmental impact,” Kriegel said. “And that’s something we could all do tomorrow, without any major obstacles.”
“Our school’s biggest area of improvement is around recycling,” Lackowitz said. “We have recycling bins in every class, but people don’t follow the rules. So everything gets mixed together, and none of what we put in there actually ends up being recycled.”
Lackowitz is satisfied with the club he has helped build so far and hopeful about its future. “We have such an amazing group of people,” Lackowitz said. “Our members are all dedicated, and they show up to our meetings.”
It is inspiring to see what a school initiative can do, and it begs the question: How can I best contribute to my local community, whether it be in regard to the climate, or in any other aspect that needs changing?