Environmental Leadership Program at the Career Fair

Trafton B.

May 15, 2011 - 11:51 AM

Friday morning was sort of a blast from the past for me. I was able to relive the days of yester-year by representing the Environmental Leadership Program at the South Eugene High School Career Symposium.

 

Katie Lynch, ELP co-director and academic advisor, first gave me this task about two months ago when I asked her for a recommendation letter. You might say I was suckered into this project, but it was really quite fun in the end so regardless I was more than happy to take it on. I always enjoy speaking about the ELP and I was especially excited this time around because I was in charge of recruiting volunteers to come with me to South Eugene High.

 

Friday morning I set up a few posters with a team of past and current ELP-mates. In case you're wondering, yes, I did bring my team's poster from the last. Obviously I needed to rep the Climate Equity Team proudly, and, well, our poster is awesome, let's be real about this.

 

The career fair itself was really fun. Not only did I get to relive the ELP, but I also had some flashbacks from high school life. First of all, how young all the high school students looked really threw me off, and I was amazed at how easily I could tell the freshmen from the seniors. I had also completely forgotten about the high school clique phenomenon - the jocks, the geeks, the popular kids, the hipsters. All groups were represented.

 

The funniest part of my day was near the end of the morning. I probably need to give a little context so you fully understand this story. The first thing you need to know is that this was a mandatory event for all the students, which for these high school kids meant that they were locked inside the gymnasium and forced to listen to what we had to say. On top of that, every student had a piece of paper that they had to fill out before leaving that day. They had to write down the name of the representative and a short description of about six or seven different organizations at the fair. And on top of that we, as presenters, had to give these students a sticker after they'd listen to us talk.

 

It was pretty easy to tell which students were actually interested in the ELP versus the students that were just nodding their heads and waiting for me to give them a sticker, so in one sense I actually like this sticker method. I'm pretty sure someone stole my sticker sheet when I wasn't looking, though, so I was a little disappointed about that.

 

Anyways, at the end of the morning about twenty minutes before we had to pack up and leave, two guys walked up to our table. I asked them how their days were going and they responded, "Pretty bad, actually. We both woke up late so we missed the first part of this thing and now we have to fill out this entire paper before we can go."

 

"Well, how many more things do you need to fill out?" I asked.

 

"Three," they replied. 

 

At that point, I said, "Well, my name is Trafton, and I'm representing the UO Environmental Leadership Program." I continued with a brief explanation of the ELP and slapped a sticker on their papers. One down. I pointed across the gym and said, "That guy's name is Chance and he's from UO Admissions, and he was going to tell about..." Then I slapped another sticker on their papers. Two down. "This lady next to me is packing up, but her name is Michelle. She's from ELaw. They have offices in eleven countries and represent victims of environmental racism." Last sticker. Boom.

 

These kids were so stoked! "Dude, you're the coolest, thanks!" No problem, fellas, happy to help. I kind of enjoy being the cool teacher that bends the rules a little. They still learned the same information, anyways, so I didn't see any harm in getting it to them faster. Maybe that's just my own pedagogical theory though.

 

Anyways, I had a great time. It was fun to reminisce about the ELP and the Climate Equity Team one last time. Now it's time to look forward to next week. Actually, I have a few projects to work on for my CPW group, Team Solid Waste, so this is probably good timing, seeing as I volunteered to design our group's poster...just like last year.