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National 4-H Council Ignite initiative helping members implement change through real-world experiences
The National 4-H Council’s Ignite initiative is giving members the tools they need to implement change in their communities.
Owen Brosanders, this year’s 4-H Youth in Action award winner, developed a sustainability action plan at his school.
“I live in an area in Tucson, Arizona, where we’re experiencing one of the greatest effects of heat, so to solve that as well as air pollution, I worked with my school district to become more sustainable through a plan that involved electric school buses,” he says.
He tells Brownfield the organization has helped prepare him prepare for his future career.
“It gave me those hard skills, like public speaking, but it also gave me those softer skills, like leadership, how to work with a team of my peers, and how to build connections among them,” he says.
Brosanders says his school district has adopted a greenhouse gas plan to switch to all-electric school buses by 2035.
The National 4-H Council provides career readiness and professional development activities for students year-round in all 50 states.
AUDIO: Owen Brosanders
I doubt that electric school buses will make Tucson cooler. If the plan includes solar panels on top of big school buildings that can charge the batteries in the middle of the day (between morning and afternoon bus runs) then the idea might work. The most likely consequence will be making the school budget worse.
There are plenty of good ideas 4-H members can tackle that improve the “sustainability” of our planet. I hope a few students ask professional engineers for suggestions. And the judging panel needs to include a few engineers so the winning plans are practical common sense ideas that are affordable.
I applaud 4-H for starting this national contest. It may take a couple of years to reach a stable, meaningful point.