Well, thank you all for.

For listening to this story and especially the stories of the communities that we get to work with and see every day.

And it's, we're going to have a panel in just a few minutes.

I just wanted to say a few words, and very excited that some of the people in this film are going to be here today.

The documentary really, ends where a lot of the work has begun, and that's where we really want to focus this panel, that's coming up.

The Seal of Climate Literacy has expanded from those students that just this past May, so just graduated less than a year ago to what we hope is, over 500 students in the school year that will receive, the Seal of Climate Lliteracy.

Lyra has been working closely with the Colorado Department of Education and many communities to give technical assistance.

So they really understand.

How do you take this piece of legislation and policy and actually make it something that is very unique to these communities, these school districts, these charters?

And we've given in that process, almost $100,000 in these small implementation grants.

So the panel you're going to hear today is really about taking it from this rural context and really moving it to, the urban areas, the Front Range, the larger, urban and suburban communities of Colorado.

And what we knew when we did our believed, when we did the Seal of Climate if we could show this was doable in rural communities first, if we could show that this actually was the ethic and what people cared about in rural areas, the urban areas would follow.

And we hope we're going to see that.

We're very excited about the possibilities.

And the growth.

And it can be discouraging, in this moment around climate, climate change and the US, just as you probably know, this week pulling out of the Paris Climate Accord, you know, which every country, except for four in the US is now one of four not a part of, but my hope is that you'll leave this theater tonight.

Seeing this hearing from our panelists, that this is actually a time of great hope, and that we are resilient just as our environments are resilient.

And if we can just create these opportunities that it is going to be through these small ways that we're actually going to see real change.

And even if our some of our political leaders don't see that opportunity, our youth definitely does.

And we believe in them, and we need to get out there and support them and do as much as we can.

So we have students on the panel.

We have other students that are in the audience.

Thank you.

This is a lot about high school.

And we're seeing high school students, but definitely want to recognize the way the Seal is set up that actually, middle school students can also start to do the experiential learning as early as middle school.

And so we want to recognize two middle schoolers from different public schools that are here.

I'm going to ask them to introduce themselves, their school and also why this, climate change is important to them.

And working around climate matters.

Hi, I'm Kaden O'Kelly, sixth or seventh grader at Morey Middle School, and I care because it's our future.

We need to save it.

And you know, Thats what its all about.

(applause) Hello, I'm Oscar Park.

I'm a seventh grader at McAuliffe International School.

And, yeah, it's it's very important because we need to be ready for the future, and we need to understand it.

Thank you, Oscar.

That was great.

Thank you both.

And I just because I have the microphone, I get to do a lot of things that no one gave me permission to do, but I'm going to do it anyway.

Royce, where are you?

Okay, here's racing USA.

I can just stand up for just a second.

Who is a Colorado college?

You're a junior.

Yes, he is a junior, but he was in our first class, along with Tal and the Environment Climate Institute.

He's from Bayfield and is just going to do extraordinary things and just had to.

It's just so amazing to have you here and Tal here and others as well, that have been on this journey from the very beginning.

So thank you for being here.

I'm going to ask Katie Navin to come up.

So, there just have been many partners.

A lot of you are here in the crowd.

I should name all of them.

Like Rachel Balkcom is here and her incredible leadership with the STEAD school.

And there's just there's just so many people.

But I can't think of anyone that has actually helped more to make the Seal of Climate Literacy happen, than Katie Navin.

She is with the Colorado Alliance for Environmental Education.

And really let us and the first time we ever actually spoke about the Seal of Climate Literacy, she asked us to come speak, in September of 23, to environmental educators to talk about this.

And we got incredible feedback that then shifted and changed the legislation.

And she also was an incredible advocate for herself.

So we could think of no better person, speaking about this and to be really talking to our students then, Katie.

Thank you.

Katie.

Thank you.

(applause) Awesome.

Well, I would love to invite all our panelists to join us up here on the stage.

And I just want to say, wow, what an incredible demonstration of the power of climate education and what happens when students and teachers and communities are all coming together.

Let's give one more round of applause to Lyra and all the work that they have done to really steward these collaborative.

(applause) It's really amazing what has been accomplished so far.

As Mary said, my name is Katie.

And, climate change education is near and dear to my heart.

We are an organization that works to support the many types of educators who are doing the work to teach about the environment and to connect people with nature.

And this is a really critical avenue for what we need in education in Colorado.

We're actually just finishing a landscape analysis of climate education or of environmental and outdoor learning in Colorado and across five other states, and we learned a lot.

We did ask teachers how much time they were spending on climate education over half of the respondents either answered zero or didn't answer the question.

So there's a huge gap in the students that actually have access to these types of learning opportunities.

But that means there's a tremendous opportunity there and a tremendous opportunity to learn from the amazing work that's happening across the state.

And as Mary said, we know this isn't just important for rural students.

They face unique challenges, but it's important for all students across the state.

And so I'm so excited to hear the stories and the work that is happening, both in rural communities and in our more urban and front range communities.

To scale this work across the state.

So I'd love to introduce our powerhouse panel here.

And if you wouldn't mind waving when I, read your name, that would be great.

So you already met Tal Sheleg.

Like, who is in the documentary?

She is a senior at Lake County High School in Leadville, and she's also active in theater, in addition to all of the work that she does in sustainability.

Cassie DeClaw is a junior at STEAD school, which is a project based hands on learning high school in science, technology, environment, agriculture and Systems Design in Commerce City.

And she's a strong student athlete in volleyball.

We also have Ian Morlan, who is a senior at DSST-Cedar High School in Denver who loves to hike, fish and do anything outdoors.

We have Rylan Neumann, who is a senior at Fairview High School in Boulder.

She's an accomplished swimmer and also loves hammocking by Alpine Lake.

In addition to all the amazing work she's doing in sustainability, and we also have some amazing educators with us, Erin Greenwood is the science coordinator and curriculum lead for sustainability and climate education at Boulder Valley School District.

She has over 20 years of experience at BVSD, many of those as a middle school science teacher.

And last but not least, Nicci Condon, who you also met in the documentary.

She's a high school science teacher at Lake County High School.

The adult mentor for the Fighters for Restoration of Green Spaces, which is a student led club.

And she was actually named Teacher of the Year in Lake County.

(applause) You are looking at our trailblazers, the folks who are trying things out, doing the work.

The folks who we're going to learn from your successes and your challenges that will help us scale this work across the state.

So I'm so excited to jump in, dig into your stories, and help us figure out how to move this work forward.

So I want to get started with our students, and you are all working to earn Colorado's brand new Seal of Climate Literacy, which requires you to complete an experiential learning project.

So, Cassie, I'm going to ask you to kick us off and tell us a little bit about the project you're working on and what motivated you to take the project on.

So I'm working on I actually did it last summer.

I was on a farm in our school.

It's a half acre.

I worked on the summer farm and just got it up to speed.

It was a lot of work, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

We had a lot of sustainable practices, like we had natural pollinators or native pollinators, flower patches around the farm that brought in the native pollinators.

And then we also did not use any chemical, pesticides and herbicides.

And we all use our hands.

And it was very hands on learning.

I would say what motivated me the most is probably just all the classes I've taken at that school, plant science, horticulture, greenhouse management, all these classes, AP, environmental science, a lot of classes that were geared towards that, that just got me thinking.

Ready to go work on the farm.

So, That's amazing.

And paving the way for so many other students to experience that.

Tal.

What a what?

Tell us a little bit about your project and what challenges you have overcome as you've been working on it.

Since my junior year, I've been working towards getting renewable energy, specifically solar panels, at my high school.

The biggest challenge I've had to overcome was not being taken seriously because of my age.

The first step in this project was to present to the school board.

During that initial presentation, I felt I wasn't being taken seriously.

So I invited all the school board members to go grab a coffee with me so I could explain the project more to them.

That coffee and conversation helped them warm up to the idea of the project.

And after a couple months, they passed that.

That's really exciting because we can start talking to solar installation companies.

I was at these solar installation meetings with board members, school board members, administrators, and of course, the companies.

At these meetings, I felt I was pushed to the side because of my age.

But when I realized these meetings weren't actually super productive, there was talk of solar panels, but nothing was actually getting done.

I decided to use my organization skills and hop on at the end of meetings and say, okay, what are our next steps?

What are action items?

And always follow up with an email.

And so over time, their attitudes changed towards me.

And I assumed the role of project manager.

I love it.

Way to keep on pushing.

Rylan, tell us about your project and what's been your biggest learning in your work so far?

Yeah, so my project is actually related to this idea of climate literacy.

So in Boulder Valley School District, I am on a team working to actually implement the Seal of Climate Literacy.

So my experiential learning project is more of a portfolio.

And that's how we're approaching the Seal of Climate Literacy.

So I'm working on a bunch of projects like the Seal of Climate Literacy.

that are to get students more involved in climate change and acting on climate change.

So what we're I'm kind of focused on is the problem that we need more climate education, which is kind of what this whole documentary was focused on.

So I have been working with a group of other students to expand climate literacy in my school district.

So yeah, I've been learning a lot about how systems work and trying to get all of this implemented.

Amazing.

Ian, we would love to hear a little bit about your project and how you think participating in the project will support your next steps after high school?

Yeah, absolutely.

The, part of my school, we have a class called Gship or Global Leadership.

And basically what this classes is meant to do is it's meant to pair, students with industry professionals.

And the entire point of the class is for environmental stewardship.

And so we had a summit, actually, in Switzerland over the summer that I had the privilege to go to.

That was pretty great.

And, but what I had, the chance to do is I and a few of my friends, we had a organization called trowel in the classroom, and this is kind of what it seems like.

We had a tank that was taken into our classroom.

And we had the privilege to raise trout over the course of the whole year.

And trout are obviously a really important part of, like, Colorado Stream ecosystems.

And it was it was really cool to work with them.

We got to have a little presentation for our middle school side.

Talking to them about it.

So that was that was very great as well.

And then for my future, we'll, we'll sort of see where that where that takes me a little bit.

Yeah.

Awesome.

Now imagine.

These projects times 500 the students will be doing across the state.

I can't believe how amazing this work is that you're taking on.

I'd love to dig in a little bit about the how of the work.

So Tal, as we saw in the documentary, you've taken on a lot of leadership roles, both as the leader of the Fighters for Restoration of Green Spaces.

You're an executive committee member of the Good Trouble Network.

You are a youth leader for the 2025 Colorado Youth Summit.

Youth Climate summit.

And so let me ask you.

We've seen, I would say, in recent years, a shift from individual action to mitigate the the effects of climate change to more collective action.

What strategies have you taken on that have helped get other students involved?

So it has been a struggle to get my peers involved.

I understand that my classmates have work, they go to school, and they have other extracurricular activities.

So if I want them to participate in my efforts, I know I need to meet them where they're at.

An example of this is my Earth Day event that my environmental club runs and hosts every year.

This event has about ten interactive stations that students can explore.

My favorite stations are a micro invertebrate station and a recycling relay.

For this event, I envision having high school students manning the stations for younger grades, but I struggled to get my peers to volunteer.

In my high school, we need community service hours in order to graduate.

So I talked to administration and got it.

So if people volunteered for my event, they could get community service hours in return.

This proved successful and we had 15 volunteers, and they also gained a lot of leadership during the event.

They had to be competent and commanding while still being enthusiastic for the kids.

So after that event, many of them joined my club and became more involved in community initiatives.

I love your creativity.

Rylan.

You've been very actively involved in the BVSD Sunrise Movement and were instrumental in lobbying for the Green New Deal for Schools resolution in BVSD.

In addition to organizing public comment on the state academic standards to include more climate change education.

So can you talk a little bit about what the key factors have been and and what's been successful in advocating for more climate change education from your perspective as a student?

Yeah, I'd say the biggest factor in the success of all of our work has been just persistence and continually showing up.

So we started showing up to school board meetings, I think lot in the in my sophomore year, at the end of the year, and we just continually showed up until November when my school board finally passed our Green New Deal for schools resolution.

And I ended up being, I think, eight school board meetings that we attended and gave public comment at.

And there are different students giving public comment at each board meeting.

And the board members were just shocked that students had this passion to continually show up time after time to voice their concerns and what we wanted.

So I'd say the biggest tools we had were continually showing up and also getting a big base of students.

We recruited so many students.

We have over 50 students in the Sunrise Movement and BSD, and it just continues growing as we continue to make big impacts and continue to show up and try to make a better world.

I love that.

I can see that persistence showing up in in all of your stories.

Cassie, you've been, you serve as a student ambassador for the STEAD school, and you testified in support of the Seal for Climate Literacy legislation.

So you've been engaged?

Very engaged in this work.

You talked a little bit about your motivation for taking on your your project, but I'd love to zoom out a little bit and talk more about that motivation.

Big picture.

Why do you think it's important and what motivates you to continue learning about the changing climate in your community?

I would say the biggest, factor to this is I'm Native American, and I want to say that I really appreciate you guys implementing that in the documentary.

It's so important.

There needs to be a lot more education on, just the overall health of the reservation.

And I just think it's so important that me being Native American and me seeing the issues in my community and what climate change is doing to my community, you know, with the Colorado River and with all the electricity shortages, everything that is going on, it's just such a big issue to me personally.

And I'm so passionate about that.

And I think that's the biggest motivation for me.

I love that you're sharing your cultural heritage and and bringing that passion into this work.

Ian, you are actually working to get an environmental club started at your school.

And you talked about this a little bit already.

But how is working on getting a club started working on sustainability and climate advocacy efforts?

How is that better preparing you for the future?

Yeah, I think one of the main thing that's doing is, is I definitely want to go into forestry and fisheries conservation.

That's something that I'm been passionate about.

That's something that I've loved to do since I was a little kid.

And so I think that's, you know, for me, but also trying to, you know, sort of seep that love into, into a few of my friends, you know, my sort of small community that I have sort of within my, within my school, and trying to get that going a little bit, and trying to, you know, trying to impart that sort of love that I have on them, also for, for my own, like, career interests.

So, yeah.

And I do want to shout out, Ian shared that he is a finalist for several scholarships and he just found out today.

So you are well on your way to preparing for the future.

I'd love to get some perspective from our educators, and we know that this work takes a lot of time.

It takes a lot of dedication.

So, Nicci, we we saw from the documentary you've been with this project from the beginning.

Can you share a little bit more about what's happened since the documentary, and how has the response from students and your school changed?

Thanks, Katie.

I would say, first of all, that our club has continued to have really big dreams for what we can do and how we can impact other communities.

And, you know, you've name several things that that tall has been involved in.

And we've expanded our Earth Day events to work with younger kids throughout our school district, and they've done lots of other smaller projects within our community, and they are definitely doing the work to make our community and make our state and our planet a better place.

And in that same breath, there have definitely still been challenges that we've faced.

There's been some resistance, potentially, or pushback against some of the initiatives that we've tried to start.

And we've continued to struggle a little bit with, bringing more recruiting more people into our club and engagement and I think generally, you know, engagement is a nationwide issue right now, just getting more youth to be a part of it.

And right now, even it's really just inspiring to be in this room and next to all these really amazing students who are really engaged in the work.

And I think it really just goes to show how much like youth can persist.

I think sometimes as an adult, we get a little bit more narrow minded about what is possible and what can be.

But and I think the documentary did a great job of showing this, but youth really do have this vision of the future and what is possible, and they see more opportunities there.

And for me as an educator, it's so amazing to work with young people who can share that vision and bring me into and continue to rejuvenate this, this feeling, instead of feeling like stuck in, I don't know, like there's nothing more we can do.

They continue to just be like, no, we can do this.

Like, here's another fun, amazing, inspiring idea.

And I really do hope that some of the incentives we've pulled in with the Seal of Climate Literacy and some of the trips that we've planned with our club, continue to bring more people in.

And really, in this last year, it has been they they showed it that the rectory, they're like FROGS has like ten new members.

And we're like, yes, like that really is pretty big for us, and especially in a smaller school and, you know, Tal, Indigo and Amara are graduating this year.

So for me, I'm thinking about like, how do we get more students to, to fill their shoes and to continue really big shoes that they're leaving behind.

Right.

And how do we continue to push these efforts forward as they graduate and leave the school?

And, you know, during our clubs that we we continue to have conversations about how we can just in our everyday life, make little things possible to to how our lives intersect with climate and environmentalism and holding each other accountable for it.

And I guess the one last thing I wanted to say, you know, is, as we continue to want to recruit more members, I want to invite, you know, the the other youth that are on the panel here and, those of you who might be sitting in the audience to to connect with us, we we really do want to have more young people, becoming part of our group and being part of our dream to make our planet a better place.

And, you know, to the more the more young people we have that are part of it, the the bigger our dream can become and the more we're going to be able to make possible.

So, yeah, connect with us.

You know, after the show, like we're here.

So, and we try to do it in a fun way.

I'm thinking about in the documentary, Indigo is like, sometimes, it can be fun and sometimes it can be miserable.

But the best part about having, like, Tal and these girls on our team is they are, like, so focused on making it fun.

So, join us in making fun.

Important climate action happen.

It's so evident the strong partnership that you've created with the students at the school.

And, I just thank you for creating those pathways for students like Tal to lead.

That's incredible.

Erin, would love to hear from you.

BVSD has a really long standing commitment to sustainability, and was the first school district in the entire country to adopt the resolution from the Green New Deal for schools, which happened in 2023.

Now, with the Seal of Climate Literacy, you're working to ensure that students at every grade level will have these types of positive, powerful learning experiences.

And I'd love to hear what you would share with other schools and districts who want to start this work.

Sure.

Thanks, Katie.

First of all, I think share is the key word.

So, Boulder Valley School District, we have a history of sustainability.

But it really took, a group of about ten students going to our school board for an entire year to give us a little ignition around that.

The Green New Deal for schools.

We have several resolutions now that we're working towards.

One of the six is that student voice is elevated in all of our action planning.

So, now that Rylan is working on her Seal of Climate Literacy, it I told her it's very meta.

It's like a funhouse mirror where you're learning how to implement The Seal to get your seal.

And so she's like, what's meta?

I'm like, you know, when you see your face a million times in the funhouse.

but that has been our, our best strategy.

We have we're a school district of 27,000 young scientists in 500 square miles.

So thinking about scaling, we have some of the same issues as our rural partners.

So our goal is to always share the work that we're doing.

And make sure whatever our Green Youth Council, which is our student voice body, comes up with that, we share that, so we've been able to meet with many other districts and just talk through what does it look like?

How could all students in our district be climate literate?

Why would we put narrow guardrails on the types of courses students can take?

Let's think broadly.

So every student has access.

And through our student voice piece.

We're really able.

To think through what the student experience is like.

And so sometimes it's just those of us who are adults, we might think we're leading the way, but we just need to get out of the way.

And let our.

Students do the leading and we can do.

Some of that guidance.

Around that.

Think about, like.

How to work within a system, how to sort of switch between grassroots activism and collective action, how to move big groups, you know, like how do you move a big system to make changes and actually implement this work?

And then the other thing I would say to our districts, you know, we're we're always out there to share, as I said, but the other piece that I think came through really clearly, in the documentary is think about your strengths and what you already have in place It's not a reinvent the wheel, It's accentuate the wheel and maybe put like some really nice racing tires on right.

And so all of our districts have amazing things going on and amazing programing.

And it's really just thinking through how does that look?

Who could we partner with to maybe enhance that.

And thinking about how to then grow on what you've already got.

You know, for us, it was really working with our standards and thinking about we've got science standards for all these courses.

We don't have a climate course in BVSD, so we're writing one.

We're just really thinking through and like going with our strengths.

We have great teachers and great students.

And we've got an interest form out there.

We've got about 37 seniors who are looking at graduating this spring with the Seal.

We've already graduated one senior early, and it was really awesome to celebrate her.

So that those are just a few things that I've thought about through the process that we've gone through.

Well, congratulations on all that work and your students coming through the program.

And I love that idea of sharing.

And there is a lot of collective wisdom in this room.

I, I value that advice tremendously.

So last question.

Rapid fire.

Love to hear from all of you.

I lost it.

So we know that one of the biggest contributors to anxiety around climate change is feeling like the problem is too big to solve.

By pursuing the Seal of Climate Literacy in for yourself or for your schools and districts.

Each of you is taking action.

What would you tell other students and all of us here about how each of us can make a difference?

And Rylan, we'll kick it off on your end.

Yeah, I would just say that you probably have some idea of like, what aspect of the climate crisis you're you want to make an impact on, and if you don't, that's great to just start exploring.

But if you have some idea, just dive right into it.

Because if you get involved and you put your whole heart into it and you don't have to if you don't have time to.

But I think you should because it's very rewarding.

Anyway, just you can do hard things and be persistent with it and dive right in.

I would say that if you're ever wanting to change the world, literally because this is affecting every single person in this room, I think that you should always be conscious of what you're contributing to the world.

And I think that it's always good to know, where you stand within the climate change crisis and just being able to even go out and buy more organic produce, or even go out to your local farmers and just be like, hey, I'm interested in like buying from you.

I think that's really a big thing to people, and it's very rewarding to just buy local food that's grown next door.

It's so amazing to see, people locally to grow your own food.

So.

I would say that if an invitation comes your way to try something, say yes.

And if a door is open, walk through it.

And if the door isn't open, but you feel compelled to act, definitely knock or nudge that door.

Or maybe knock it down.

And if that door is locked, just go through the window instead and find a way.

To get it done.

I would say, given my context, being in a very urban school, I think just exposing people to trying to develop like a love of nature, like even something as simple as that.

I think trying to expose people to that, trying to get people to try to get people to care because, you know, they're not going to, go for something they don't care about.

And so I think starting small, starting with something practical that people can do and within their context, something that doesn't seem so overwhelming, because, you know, it can seem like a very overwhelming thing, like, you know, the world is crashing down.

But I think it's, you know, if you start small, it seems like it's, you know, it's just one step at a time.

Yeah.

I love the phrase think globally, act locally because small changes can have a big impact.

I think it's relatively easy and cheap to have environmental initiatives at your local library or community garden.

For example, in Leadville, we have lots of events where you can make your own reusable bag.

And I've noticed as I go running on the local trails, there are far less plastic bags than there have been in previous years.

For me personally, my answer to that question is I became an educator.

I know that the biggest way I can make an impact on this world is by working with young people and hopefully inspiring them to see the world in a different way.

And I think a great example of this is my environmental science class this year.

At the the end of the semester, I asked them to reflect on, how the class went and what they could take away to continue to be an environmentalist.

And almost all of them said, I'm not interested in following a green job, but, all of them did say something about how they they learned about an issue in our community that they didn't realize was there before, or they realized that being an environmentalist was as simple as doing nothing.

We went to the Denver Zoo, and we learned about how, you know, don't clean your windows, don't, like, rake the the leaves from your yard.

And I think just having them know that, these issues exist and just having them care a little bit more, having more people just care that our environment is important, that our planet is important, will make the world a better place.

That is amazing advice.

And I, I wish everyone in all of our schools could hear it.

Thank you.

What I'd like to leave us all with.

I just started reading this book.

What if we get it right?

And for all the climate activists in this room, you probably have seen or heard this book.

It's by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson.

And I picked it up last night, and the back of the book says “To envision the world we want to create, it helps to know the many ways that we are already creating it.” And that's what you're seeing here.

And I want to thank you for doing that work to create the world that we all want to see.

The the efforts that you're putting in, the things that you're making happen, the education that you're bringing to your schools is incredible.

And making such a huge difference in the world.

And that's the world that I want to live in.

So let's give our panelists a huge round of applause.

(applause) Thank you so much, Katie.

And I just want to recognize not just the students, but the school districts and charter schools that are being these early adopters of the Seal of Climate Literacy.

They are really stepping out and they're actually paving the way.

And I appreciated what Erin said.

They're going to learn from each other and see this opportunity.

And there are many others you know, that aren't here at Denver Public Schools.

Abby's here.

They're doing it in 20 of their schools, as well.

And so there's just so many, you know, schools that right now are doing this and they're going to have graduates coming this May.

So just really exciting time in Colorado.

And I really think making us a model for other places and states.

So thank you all so much.

Just want to do a quick plug.

You've already seen the documentary.

If you can't not watch.

It a second time.

It's going to be aired on January 30th on Rocky Mountain PBS, and hopefully more people will have a chance to see it.

And I think there's another slide about the Youth Climate Institute.

It's going to be.

May 2nd and 3rd.

It's going to be in Carbondale, Colorado.

Lyra is working with wild Rose and supporting students and others to be able to attend this.

And so it's free for Colorado High School youth and food and lodging, are included.

So if you know of youth that might be interested in this, we would love.

I'd love to have them attend.

And just thank you all for being here.

It's been a real joy.

Thank you.

(applause)