<
https://reasonstobecheerful.world/california-high-school-sustainability-green-jobs-curriculum/>
"Jesika Gonzalez will tell you that she wasn’t the biggest fan of Porterville,
California, while she was growing up.
“When I was younger, I was very, like, angsty,” the 18-year-old said as she
flicked her purple hair over her shoulder. “Whatever, this town’s small,
nothing to do.”
Porterville is a predominantly Hispanic working-class town in the Central
Valley of California, where environmental hazards include some of the worst air
quality in the state; the past year’s torrential rains that inundated hundreds
of acres of farmland; and a heat wave that pushed temperatures past 110 degrees
Fahrenheit this July.
But Porterville has this going for it: Its school district pioneered a
partnership with Climate Action Pathways for Schools, or CAPS, a nonprofit that
aims to help high school students become more environmentally aware while
simultaneously lowering their school’s carbon footprint and earning wages.
CAPS is part of a growing trend. Like similar programs in Missouri, Illinois,
Maine, Mississippi and New York City, CAPS is using the career-technical
education, or CTE, model to prepare young people for the green jobs of the
future before they get out of high school.
For Gonzalez, a self-described tree-hugger, the program has changed the way she
looks at her hometown. These days, she downright appreciates it, “because I’ve
had the opportunity to see that sustainability is everywhere.”"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
