This year’s Student GREEN Congress was held on March 20th at The Evergreen State College. Our friends at Thurston Conservation District had this to say about it:
Just a couple weeks ago, South Sound GREEN celebrated another successful Student GREEN Congress event! For 23 years now, South Sound GREEN and the Nisqually River Education Project have collaborated to produce the annual Student GREEN Congress. This fun and inspiring event brings 500 students to The Evergreen State College each year from the South Sound and Nisqually school districts. These students get the chance to share their water quality data from fall and winter, meet other students, and go to fun, educational workshops. It’s a great opportunity for students that many would love to take, but through an application process that students undergo, only eight highly motivated students per class are lucky enough to be elected as a Student Delegate.
The heart of Congress evolves around this water quality data. After spending all year collecting, analyzing and preparing to present this data, it is shared in the first half of Congress-the State of the
Rivers Session. As Nisqually Middle School Student, Nevaeh Clevenger said, “It was amazing to see how many locals care about these problems just as much as we do!”
After the State of the River Session, student delegates were treated to a variety of fun workshops lead by leaders in the community and natural resource professionals who were more than happy to offer their time and knowledge. With workshops ranging from Native American storytelling, Beach Seining for Critters, and even to learning how to Dance Like A Salmon, the students were able to experience a wide range of workshops. With program partners and community members volunteering their time and organizations offering their services for workshops, a lot of time and dedication was put into this event, which turned out to be an invaluable experience for these students. Comments such as, “such an amazing experience” (Nisqually Student, Brittany Miller), and “…I think this was the best year,” (Nisqually MS Student, Allison Lovely) chimed excitedly throughout the closing ceremony of this year’s Congress. This event seems to just get better and better over the years, and we can’t wait to start planning the next!
