Aloha, conservationists.
Three local students are looking at the greener side of things in Hawaii this week while attending the largest global gathering of conservation policy makers.
The World Conservation Congress takes place Sept. 1-10 and will feature special guest speakers such as Barack Obama.
The quadrennial event is expected to be attended by about 10,000 conservationists such as those with the Canadian Wildlife Federation (CWF).
As part of the congress, high school students from around the province, notably from Canmore Collegiate High School, are joining CWF.
Funding for the trip is provided by CRPS and CWF.
Mike Bingley, CWF experiential education manager, said they deliberately looked at school boards such as Canadian Rockies Public Schools that are doing interesting things in environment conservation.
The Congress experience for students is a chance to learn and return to Canada with leadership qualities in conservation.
“One thing desperately needed in conservation is making sure that the high school student is considering it a career and that they’re considering it as leadership time, so it’s part of why we’re taking these students to Hawaii,” said Bingley.
“We want to make sure we have students that have a sense of what conservation really was about and would really get something out of it, so that’s really important to us going forward.”
Canmore Collegiate High School Grade 12 students Tenaya Lynx and Robin Pollard and Grade 10 student Mikaela Holthuis will all attend the event in Hawaii, along with Pete Prescesky, outdoor learning coordinator.
The goal is to get more youth involved, said Lynx.
“We’re going over there and we’ll be able to see what other efforts are already in place in Hawaii and around the world, what they’re doing and what we can do to get involved,” said Lynx.
The young women, excited for the trip and maybe even nonchalantly looking for a photo-op with the U.S. president, will be able to connect and learn from different conservationists and people, including local Hawaiian students, and ask first hand what conservation means to them.
“It’ll be cool to be around other people who have the same goal as I do and these things that I would love to be doing when I graduate and after I go to university,” said Pollard.
The trio will look for opportunities to share ideas, said Holthuis, and see what is done differently in conservational efforts.
“So we’re all taking part in the environmental conservation process,” she said.
