Each year, Blue Planet organizes the Student Energy Summit, an interactive educational workshop that zeroes in on Hawaii’s energy challenges and opportunities.
Nearly 200 middle and high school students and their teachers gathered at the Hawaii Convention Center in Honolulu for two days in November 2018 to tackle real-world clean energy challenges. Youth from across the state put their problem-solving skills to work through interactive workshops and hands-on challenges at Blue Planet Foundation’s fourth annual Student Energy Summit. Many thanks to our sponsor, Clearway Energy Group, LLC, whose support made the event possible. Check out the media coverage of the event.
The theme last year—“SPACESHIP EARTH: Failure is not an option”—drew on the story of Apollo 13 for inspiration and analogy. It took some wickedly creative problem-solving and teamwork to save the lives of the astronauts on board the damaged Apollo 13 spacecraft. And it’s going to take an equally inventive and collaborative push to roll back climate change.
While working on mind-bending challenges like designing carbon removal devices and creating persuasive messaging for climate campaigns, students at the Summit also got to meet “Commander Jeff,” who kicked off the Summit with a powerful call to action. Although some youngsters were disappointed to learn he was just Jeff Mikulina from Blue Planet Foundation and not a real astronaut from NASA. (Sorry, kids!)
Lily Oldham, a 9th grader from Maui High School, has attended all four Student Energy Summits, and helped wrap things up on the second day. “Every year I learn new things,” she said. “This year, I learned that teamwork is really key in working for a better future.”
Lily’s commitment to fighting climate change is a call to action to us all. The young participants at the Student Energy Summit fill us with hope, and also remind us that we owe it to them to beat back climate change in every way we can.
Click here for 2018 Student Energy Summit by Numbers