Powering the Green Tigers
Kristen Powers, a rising senior at Chapel Hill High School definitely lives up to her name. She has been a powerful force for good since she arrived in Chapel Hill 4 years ago. Though she was excited to see how far along the green/sustainability movement already was in Chapel Hill, she jumped right in where she saw an opening. Kristen started a Green Teen Club at McDougal Middle School as an 8th grader and then the Green Tigers Club at Chapel Hill High (CHHS) as a freshman.
The first initiative at CHHS involved getting a community garden up and running. The Green Tigers have started to address energy conservation by purchasing and having installed 2 motion sensor lights in the teacher/faculty lounge; they are now trying 5 more in classrooms. A group of students attended the Power Shift conference in Washington, DC in both 2009 and 2011 where they connected with students from around the country working as activists to create a clean energy future in the U.S.
The biggest impact Green Tiger project has been the garden. In 3 years of spring gardens they have grown 135 grocery bags worth of organic produce which have been divided between the students who volunteer, several Burmese families whose children are students at CHHS and to a local food kitchen (St. Joseph’s Ministry). This has all been accomplished with an average of 7-10 student volunteers! Three hundred people have visited to see the only community garden in Chapel Hill that is 100% student run.
Funding for these initiatives has come from small donations from community members and 3 grants from Do Something which encourages young people to create their own vision for making a difference in their community and provides them with the resources. Green Tigers has been one of the top 5 finalists in the grant competition, Green Your School, for 2 years, wining $1000 and an HP computer each year. They also created their own income generation vehicle in partnership with local green store, TWIG - selling eco friendly reusable water bottles with the CHHS insignia. This also reduces the amount of plastic bottles students are using.
In 9th grade Kristen was also involved in the Chapel Hill Mayor’s Youth for a Sustainable Future Green Skills to Service Program which seeks “to empower the youth to become leaders of change in their homes, schools, neighborhoods and community by way of the political process through engagement in relevant, hands-on sustainable learning models”. She and 2 other students participated in the 2008-2009 Water Conservation Program wherein they conducted water audits on 5 public housing units and retrofitted these same units with high-efficiency toilets, low-flow showerheads and faucet aerators. The students monitored water consumption several months and calculated the projected yearly savings for these units based on their observations($13,000), and then created a series of recommendations for the Town to consider as ways to improve sustainability in Chapel Hill public housing.
Kristen’s inspiration comes from her father who she describes as an energy and water conserver, and her step mother who was an urban forester and now started her own company, Petfinder, an online, searchable database of animals who need homes. Her mother’s illness and death from Huntington’s disease made her aware of the possibility of her contracting it. So in her ‘take the bull by the horns’ way, she is currently making a documentary about Huntington’s to educate others as she awaits testing to be informed of her own risk.
As she looks to her last year at CHHS, Kristen expresses amazement at fellow Green Tigers’ level of engagement and feels confident that her succession plan that moves her into the Chief mentor role to the new Executive Board of rising sophomores and juniors will offer more students leadership opportunities. Her wish for CHHS is that the building be renovated to be more energy efficient. With the team she has in place there is a strong possibility that this will happen. She laughs as she describes the influence she has had on one friend who states “Now I’m the annoying green person”. Kristen is a dynamic example of a young person who is following her passions, using her energy to make a difference and empowering others to do the same. Can’t wait to hear about what she does next!