This event will feature over 40 workshops and events for students to participate in and lead! See the workshop descriptions by clicking on either of the buttons.

The first ever in history PK-12 Youth Climate Summit in May of 2023 was an event celebrating sustainability through the lens of various careers, student research and presentations, and hands-on workshops

2023 Highlights included:

• Pre-K-12 science research presentations, including presentations by HS students from other schools and states

• Partnerships with 8 other middle and high schools

• An evening event open to all community members

• Birds of Prey, snakes, turtles, & other encounters with the Sharon Audubon animals

• A visit from the BOCES Green Machine

• Electric vehicles, hybrids, and solar-powered engineering design

• Workshops utilizing GUFS green spaces, including our 181-acre school forest

• Local eco-vendors, food trucks, & evening workshops

Check out the 2023 Youth Climate Summit Journal here 

The day was full of hands-on workshops centered on connecting students with nature, careers in science, and empowering them to turn climate anxiety into climate action. The Garrison School brought in 13 guest experts who led workshops throughout the school's substantial green spaces. Students foraged in the 181-acre Garrison School Forest, learned from NASA botanists and biomimicry engineers, interacted with live birds of prey, reptiles, and snakes, explored the Green Machine - a truck with a multitude of interactive forms of renewable energy - and so much more.

11 student volunteers from 4th-8th grade collaborated to lead a keynote speech about the merit of our local environment, challenges it's facing, and what we can do to help. From Kindergarten to 8th grade, Garrison students left the Summit with the understanding of why we should fight to make the world a greener place - and the knowledge and power of how to do it. Read about it here:

• PCNR Article (downloaded here)

• The Highlands Current Article