WMU hosts energy summit for high school studentsJuly 21, 2010 KALAMAZOO--Thirty Michigan high school students, including several from southwest Michigan, will be attending an energy summit Sunday through Thursday, July 24-29, in the Fezter Center on the Western Michigan University campus. The Youth Policy Summit to Address Energy Innovation in Michigan will culminate with the participating students developing a final set of recommendations that will be shared with the Michigan Legislature and Board of Education as well as with members of Congress, other state legislatures, and business and non-governmental organization leaders. The students participating in the summit represent the Kalamazoo Area Mathematics & Science Center, Portage Northern High School, City High-Middle School in Grand Rapids, the Saginaw Arts & Sciences Academy, Herbert Henry Dow High School in Midland, and the Marvin L. Winans Academy of Performing Arts in Detroit. Public events Among the summit's highlights will be a panel discussion with Michigan experts and a presentation of the students' final recommendations. Both events are open to the public and will be held in the Fetzer Center.
Experts taking part in the panel discussion represent the American Gas Association, CMS Energy, the Dow Corning Corp., the Great Lakes Renewable Energy Association, the Michigan Environmental Council, the state Bureau of Workforce Training and the state Department of Environmental Quality. The participating students spent their spring semester conducting original research and now will be gathering at WMU to engage those and other energy leaders on policy solutions for sustainably meeting current and future energy needs. They will focus on creating opportunities for new "green" jobs within the energy sector as well as on progressive energy solutions. The summit will run in conjunction with a free Climate Status Investigations Institute at WMU July 27-28 for Michigan middle and high school teachers. Those interested in participating in the institute should contact Wendi Liles with the Keystone Center at wliles@keystone.org. Both the Youth Policy Summit and CSI training are signature programs of that center, which is a nonprofit organization headquartered in Keystone, Colo. The Keystone Center promotes non-biased science-based learning through a variety of education programs and brings together public-, private- and civic-sector leaders to solve contentious policy issues. It also helps to give young and adult leaders of today and tomorrow the intellectual and social skills they will need to resolve society's most challenging energy, health, environmental and resource problems. WMU hosted its first Youth Policy Summit last year when the Keystone Science School partnered with the University's CoreKids K-12 earth science outreach program. CoreKids is affiliated with the Michigan Geological Repository for Research and Education in WMU's Department of Geosciences. The repository focuses on basic and applied research, student training, continuing education, and outreach related to energy, natural resources and the environment. In addition to WMU, this year's summit sponsors include several Michigan companies and foundations. Additional information To arrange to attend a summit event, contact Keystone's Elizabeth Roush at eroush@keystone.org or (970) 513-5824 or CoreKids' Susan Grammer at susan.grammer@wmich.edu or (269) 387-8642. Directions to the Fetzer Center and parking information are available at wmich.edu/fetzer. For more information on the summit, visit the Youth Policy Summit online. For more information on MGRRE, visit the Michigan Geological Repository for Research and Education online or contact Susan Grammer at susan.grammer@wmich.edu or (269) 387-8642. To download the 2009 summit's final report and recommendations, which deal with greenhouse gas reductions in Michigan, visit CoreKids online. Media contact: Jeanne Baron, (269) 387-8400, jeanne.baron@wmich.edu WMU News |
