What is the Summit for the Planet and why might you encourage people (especially families) to attend?Summit for the Planet is an annual walk-a-thon and environmental festival held up at Mount Madonna School (MMS). Every April, the MMS community and more gather up on the mountaintop for a day of walking in the redwoods, listening to music, and participating in environmentally conscious activities. I’d encourage people to come for the experience—Summit is truly a community event, and there is something very powerful about seeing so many people gathered together in order to appreciate and protect the world we live in.
Why is it important for young people to get engaged in environmental education activities?
Young people need to know what is happening to the environment around them. They need to know that the world they are growing up in is facing issues that come with extreme consequences, such as global warming and the drought in California. When kids become aware of environmental issues, they will take steps to protect their world. These next upcoming generations are the ones who are going to need to make change in order to save our natural world, and the more knowledgeable kids are about environmental issues, the quicker change will come.
Why are you personally interested in protecting the environment and the natural world?I have been extremely lucky growing up, as my house is about 300 feet from the beach. As a kid, I spent my time in the ocean and in the redwoods of the Santa Cruz Mountains, surfing and hiking and just being outside. My interest in protecting the environment and the natural world is almost a selfish interest—I don’t want to give up the beauty of the natural world that surrounds me. I want to be able to keep swimming in the ocean, to keep climbing trees, to find a meadow full of wildflowers and just lay in it for a while. I want this world to be just as beautiful for my kids as it has been for me, and the only way that can happen is if we take steps to protect the environment from the effects of human advancement.
Why is environmental protection important in terms of humanity issues?
Despite the fact that we seem to rely more on technology than anything else these days, we cannot forget what we rely on the most for our survival: the environment. Natural resources are our life source, and at the rate we are depleting them, we humans are creating our own destruction. We must take care of our waterways in order to keep our water clean to drink. We must make efforts to protect the ocean from pollution if we want to keep the fish that live there safe for us to eat. By harming nature, we are only harming ourselves, so really there is no distinction between environmental issues and humanity issues. They’re the same.
What do you gain from your Mount Madonna teachers in encouraging you to be an ecologically-aware citizen?What I have loved the most about Mount Madonna is our location in the redwood forest, and I think this is a sentiment shared by most people up on the mountain. Our teachers take advantage of our proximity to nature, and throughout my four years in high school here I have spent countless days in the redwoods writing poetry, learning Spanish, and completing some pretty neat physics experiments. By bringing learning outside the classroom and incorporating nature into their classes, my teachers have helped to cultivate my love for the natural world. This appreciation, in turn, makes me care about the environment, and heightens my awareness of environmental issues.
Biography: What grade are you in at Mount Madonna and what do you aspire to study for a career path?
I am currently in 12th grade at MMS, so I am at the tail end of my high school career. I’m not sure where I am going to college in the fall yet, but I do know that I want to major in English while also following a pre-med track. My eventual goal is to work for Doctors Without Borders as an emergency surgeon, while also being a novelist on the side.
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Photos by Maureen Pramanik
Contact: Leigh Ann Clifton, Marketing and Communications,