Co-Chair: Natalie Brewer

The Green School Committee's goal is to assist Howard County schools in becoming Maryland Green School certified. Volunteering is done throughout the school year. This is a great opportunity to have a tremendous impact of environmental awareness on the community.

Volunteer Description

Your role would be to act as a Green School coach.  In this role you would assist a school that is trying to become Green School certified or recertified by the state of Maryland.  You would be working with adults, teachers, other school system employees, other Master Gardeners, and possibly representatives from the Howard County Conservancy and Recreation and Parks.  Meetings are held in conjunction with the Youth Education Committee.

Volunteer Responsibilities

• Your primary job is to be a resource for the school, not to do the work for them.
• You can do a walk through with the teachers and/or Green School committee members from that school and give them horticultural suggestions they can consider to become certified.  Examples include discussing the creation of a rain garden, a habitat garden, a no-mow zone, or a composting program.
• Throughout the year, you will continue to coach the school on an as-needed basis.
• As you desire, you could do hands-on work at the school and work with children.
• You will give schools contact information about Master Gardener Youth Education presentations that are available to the students which may count toward their Maryland Green School certification.
• The hours when you will be most active will be during school hours.
• Most schools only request one meeting or help with one project.
• In addition, there is a Green Schools Workshop held for teachers three times per school year in the early evening at the Howard County Conservancy.  You will not be required to attend, but attendance is helpful to further understand the needs of the schools. 

Skills and Materials Needed

You need to have a friendly and helpful disposition and be able to follow through on requests.  You will need to communicate clearly through email or by telephone.

You will be provided with a MAEOE (The Maryland Association for Environmental & Outdoor Education) Green School application so you can familiarize yourself with the application process facing schools.  Committee chairpersons will meet with you to help you understand the Green Schools certification process and do some preliminary training.