Phoenix Union Bioscience High School is the first school in Arizona, and possibly the nation, to incorporate a sustainability officer position into its student council.
The high school’s partnership with SustainPHX Literacy Project, an initiative led by the city of Phoenix’s Green Team, allowed for senior Clarissa Smith, who is also an intern with the Office of Environmental Programs, to run and be elected to the position by her peers.
The SustainPHX Literacy Project was initially created to increase sustainability literacy among city employees, city youth programs, community-based youth programs and public schools, according to the SustainPHX Literacy Project’s 2012-2013 annual report.
“There’s 372 K-12 schools in the city and almost a quarter million students,” Chief Sustainability Officer Mark Hartman said during the Phoenix City Council’s Finance, Efficiency, Economy and Sustainability Subcommittee’s meeting on Wednesday morning. “And when you consider their families, over half our population has kids that are in the schools. So, they’re a great way to engage the community.”
Manager of the Office of Environmental Programs Phil McNeely said the project began with 45 after-school programs and 101 presentations. During the second phase, they began to reach out to individual high schools to create sustainability officer positions.
“We’re trying to grow it,” McNeely said after the meeting. “We’re trying to get every school to have a council seat for (sustainability). This is like a demonstration project and hopefully other schools will see that it works well and that it has added value and they’ll start copying it.”
At Bioscience, the creation of the sustainability officer position began a relationship between the student government and sustainability initiatives already present on campus, Smith said during the meeting.
“This is my first year in student government and I’m hoping we can make more connections between environmental clubs and student government,” Smith said after the meeting. “It’s all student-led. They get together in groups and we incorporate things from all of our classes — it’s Spanish classes, it’s engineering, biomedical, the humanities.”
Through her office, Smith said that she hopes to fund water bottle-filling stations around campus, fund green events and activities and continue to develop a community garden. Bioscience students also have the opportunity to work on a hybrid car and its solar-charging station in addition to an aquaponic system that was created last year.
Due in part to its previous sustainability efforts, Bioscience was named one of the “Most Amazing High School Campuses in the World” by BestEducationDegrees.com in 2013.
Related: Bioscience High School ranks in worldwide ‘Most Amazing High School Campuses’ list
Chairman of the Subcommittee Councilman Bill Gates and Councilman Michael Nowakowski congratulated Smith for both her victory and her commitment to sustainability.
“We do wear a lot of hats in this subcommittee, but sustainability is a big piece of what we do,” Gates said during the meeting. “And we know that, for us old folks here, there’s only so much we can do, but you guys are the future.”
Chairman Gates also suggested that the City Council should challenge the other schools in Arizona to create similar positions on their student councils.
Smith said that she intends to create a manual promoting the benefits of having such a position available. The manual is also meant to serve as a blueprint for other schools.
“Even though we’re small, we can do a lot of amazing things,” Bioscience student council president Briana Diaz said following the meeting.
Contact the reporter at carolyn.corcoran@asu.edu
