Embedded Files
I believe that justice in the context of environmental justice is about uplifting marginalized communities to protect them from the affects of climate change.
My practice of justice has grown this semester as I've learned more about how communities have been held back. Such as redlining, which is a racist practice that has left black communities more vulnerable to adverse effects of the climate crisis. I have become more aware of how necessary justice is in our world.
Evidence of Learning
Evidence of Learning
1A: Critical Consciousness
1A: Critical Consciousness
EJ Changemakers recognize oppressive social forces shaping society and are moved to take action against them.
1B: Advocacy
1B: Advocacy
EJ Changemakers must know how to use their voices to convince others to adopt sustainable, just, equitable, and collective behavior.
1C: Collective Action
1C: Collective Action
EJ Changemakers must work with a community coalition to transform institutional and political policies to restore environmental justice.
At the beginning of this semester, we were tasked with creating a praxis about our personal understanding of what environmental justice is. It was an acknowledgment of the forces like racism that negatively shape our world today. As the semester ends we revisited the document and added onto it our new perspective about what environmental justice is and what it means to be a changemaker.
As a group, we collaborated in solidarity with Friday's for the Future to create a persuasive presentation about why fossil fuels need to be eliminated and then presented it to the Upper School at Laurel. This was a great opportunity to work on my public speaking skills and express my passion for environmental justice.
I wrote an opinion piece about redhouse architecture, which is the local company that I partnered with over the semester. I got to learn about the work they do to contribute to solutions for the climate crisis. In my piece I advocated for redhouse to receive more attention for their commendable work. This was good practice for my writing skills and my ability to advocate for what I am passionate about.
When I learned about redlining and how it still continues to affect black communities, I felt moved to write a poem advocating for people to recognize how the government and large corporations effectively convince us not to care about these suffering people because they profit off of it.
In a collaboration with some of my fellow students, we created a letter to send to our Mayor. We told him about our semester, what we do, and who we have worked with. We implored him to support environmental reform in Cleveland and invited him to speak with us further about our passions.
For our collaboration with redhouse we attended Biocene at the Ohio Aerospace Institute. We attended to hear our mentor, Chris Maurer, and other innovators talk about their work in biomimicry. This was a great scientific event but it was also a helpful experience into seeing how networking happens and how to make connections. I was able to introduce myself to the CEO of the Akron Zoo which was a wonderful experience for me.
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