On Friday, April 27th, over eighty middle and high school students from across the state of Minnesota gathered at the University of Minnesota’s St. Paul campus for the YEA! MN Student Sustainability Summit.  The energy, maturity, and inquisitiveness the students brought to the event was inspiring.  I felt extremely privileged to be working with and getting to know these brilliant future leaders of Minnesota!

Friday, April 27th 8:30-2:30 PM
University of MN St Paul Campus

This free event will feature keynote speaker Will Steger and a series of exciting youth led workshops related to environmental sustainability and climate change solutions.

Register Today…

That is what various student groups and organizations gathered to discuss on the last day of Black History Month. The Will Steger Foundation sponsored Clean Air: the New Civil Rights Struggle at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities last week with a diverse coalition of partners, including Sierra Club, Black Motivated Women, Black Student Union, Native American Law Students Association, Black Law Student Association, American Indian Student Cultural Center, and EcoWatch.

This past Tuesday YEA! MN (Youth Environmental Activists of Minnesota) teamed up with MPIRG (Minnesota Public Interest Research Group) to create a youth centered lobby day at the state capitol. Tons of youth from around Minnesota, came to the event. Everyone was excited to learn about the legislative process and make a difference in our state’s environmental policy. Students learned how to lobby with their designated senators and representatives from a workshop lead by MPIRG. Then everyone divided into groups to learn more specifically about the topics on which they wanted to lobby on. The topics were the solar standard in Minnesota, the recycling refund act, Voter ID, and environmental defense of existing bills. Students met with senators and representatives in meetings MPIRG had set up. The day concluded with all the participants singing Let’s Use the Sun (to the tune of Here Comes the Sun by the Beatles) written by Shira Breen and the South High School environmental club, The Green Tigers.