DC YEA!

Last week’s DC Green Student Organizations Forum was a great success! Students from green groups at Georgetown, American University, George Washington University, and Trinity Washington University met at American University to talk about how green groups can help each other and work together.

First, we did introductions, and learned about what different groups are doing on their campuses. Claire Austin (co-president of EcoAction) and I talked about the new community compost, the Greenpeace campaign against Asia Pulp & Paper, the Magis Row weatherization project, the recent victory with double-sided printing, and our upcoming trip to the Tar Sands rally, among other things. We heard about the Roots & Shoots chapter at George Washington University, about the development of a new environmental group at Trinity Washington University, and about the upcoming Food Justice Day at American. In addition, we got some great advice from GW students about how to expand our composting program.

Above all, though, the biggest achievement at the Forum was our decision to revive DC YEA – the D.C. Youth Environmental Alliance. The mission of DC YEA is “to serve as a dynamic alliance of DC Youth, creating positive environmental change in our schools, community, and government.” We gathered each other's contact information and set up the DC YEA Facebook page. Through DC YEA, we’ll keep in touch about environmental events on our campuses and in DC. We’ll be able to attend each other’s events and meet up at events in the city. Also, we’ll be able to keep giving advice to each other about our sustainability efforts on our respective campuses.

More about DC YEA after the jump, including our first event! 

We even set up our first DC YEA event: we’ll be meeting at the Farrugut North Metro stop at 1:30 PM before the Tar Sands Rally on Sunday, November 6. We’re also getting together the day before, on Saturday, November 5, at GW’s campus at 11:00 AM to create a big DC YEA banner to bring to the rally. (Read more about the tar sands issue in last month's blog post.) 

This is a huge step for DC students who are passionate about environmentalism. It’s all the more exciting because it shows clear progress since last semester, when we held the first DC Green Student Organizations Forum. That meeting, held here at Georgetown and organized by Scott Breen (COL ’11), Bettina Bergöö (SFS ’11), and current Eco-Action co-president Claire Austin (SFS '12), was one of the first times that so many green student-groups in DC had been in the same room for a formal meeting.

Now, following our second meeting, we’ve created an organizational structure to move beyond sharing ideas to true collaboration. Show your support by liking the DC YEA page on Facebook, and joining us for the Tar Sands Rally on November 6!