Delaware high school students come together at a summit to explore the state’s most pressing environmental issues.
More than 230 students from over 20 schools representing all three counties met at Delaware Tech in Dover on Friday.
They discussed issues like climate change and conserving wildlife in Delaware.
Piper Jenkins is a sophomore at St. Andrew’s School in Middletown. She says she hopes the summit leads to action.
"Our goal here is not just to talk about the issues at hand, but to come to solutions," Jenkins. "It's something that we want it to be cohesive and we want it to create solutions and kids to come up with plans to make their school greener make their counties and communities greener. We're really hoping that this makes the impact we're looking for."
Eleri Phillips is a junior at St. Andrew’s School in Middletown and a lead student organizer. She says the students are taking the summit seriously.
"I think it's incredibly important, it's our futures that we're talking about here for our generation but also generations to come," said Phillips. "We're reaching a really pivotal point right now I think where action really needs to be taken."
Odyssey Charter School teacher Melissa Tracy was among the adult advisors who helped plan the summit.
"This is an idea that started with a few adults last summer and, of course, we knew that we could have a summit without amazing student leaders," said Tracy. "One thing that we decided very early on is that we wanted this to be a summit that was led by students for students."
Tracy adds a second summit is already scheduled for February 26, 2021, and she says they hope to double the number of students attending.
And students expect to bring back results after working on action plans in their schools and communities.
