Sustainability scholars to gather at Regional Student Conference

Most adults can remember a time before Al Gore and Kyoto; when environmental issues were more a fad than an overarching social consciousness. But like e-mail and cell phones, America’s high school students can barely remember a time when it wasn’t easy being green. Taking up the mantle of the environmental movement today seems as natural as texting for teens who, through school projects and clubs, have created a vision of future climate change initiatives.

The most recent example in Pennsylvania is the Regional Student Conference on Alternative Energy; an event celebrating wind, solar and net metering technology presented by Central Dauphin High School’s Sustainability Club. On Saturday, May 8, Harrisburg University will play host to the conference, which welcomes expert and student speakers to share case studies and real-world experiences with attendees. The first of its kind, the conference will focus on hybrid power systems–wind turbines and solar panels working together as one system–from the point of view of a high school student.

“The club has two threads running through it. The club is producing half a kilowatt and is hoping for next year to push it up to a full kilowatt, so that’s the applied side,” says Glenn Williams, parental advisor and father of club member Kevin Williams. “But the other side is understanding. They built it but they also fully understand it. And once they understand it, they want to share it.”

Conference organizers have invited more than 100 students representing 29 high schools from the state. These students will join guest speakers like Secco owner Barry Kindt, Dept Chair for HACC Industrial Technologies Daniel Wagner, and Distribution Automation Engineer for PPL Electric Utilities Tim Figura, along with a long list of student presenters and educators. The club enlisted a cadre of top-flight sponsors like Papa John’s Pizza and Giant Foods, and is already looking ahead to next year where they plan to stream the conference online. For this year though, Glenn Williams and company hope that, by presenting alternative electrical connections, they will create some social ones.

“At these different schools, there might be a couple of people who are interested like our kids and if we can make contact with them, we’d like relationships to occur,” says Williams. “Whether that’s a collaboration on a piece or just working together to advance our goals, maybe taking joint field trips…we won’t know until the actual event.”

Source: Glenn Williams, Central Dauphin High School Sustainability Club
Writer: John Steele