On Wednesday, the Diana Center attracted a slightly younger crowd.
Barnard welcomed 150 seventh and eighth grade students from six local middle schools to its new building for an event called “Kids Go Green,” the first Diana event created specifically for local students.
“Kids Go Green” brought students from Frederick Douglass Academy II, Corpus Christi School, Booker T. Washington, KIPP STAR College Prep, Columbia Secondary School, and Mott Hall II to Barnard for four hours of learning about sustainability in urban spaces. Attendees toured the Arthur Ross Greenhouse on top of Milbank Hall and played environment-related games on the Diana’s green roof.
According to Professor Hilary Callahan, Barnard professor of biological studies and cocreator of the event, organizers intended to touch on energy conservation, minimizing and managing waste, plants and nutrition and political engagement.
Teachers said they had been looking forward to an opportunity for their students to learn about environmental issues in a hands-on way.
“Environmentalism is a hot topic in sciences and social studies at the moment,” Blair Jenkins, eighth-grade science teacher at Mott Hall II, said.
Rebecca Fagin, assistant principal of Mott Hall II, said that the goal of “Kids Go Green” related to her school’s attempts “to raise environmental awareness.”
“We are becoming a greener world, but I’m not sure if the kids really know what that means or looks like,” she said.
Some students expressed interest in returning.
“Its good to know that the greenhouse is open to the public,” said Shayla Brown, an eighth-grade student from KIPP STAR.
She added that she was happy “to learn that there is some place I can come to visit to see different plants that I normally don’t see where I live, like cactus, lily pads, banana trees and Peruvian old man trees.”
In addition to educating middle school students about the environment, program organizers hoped to introduce them to college.
Barnard President Debora Spar highlighted this goal in her welcome address. “I really hope that all of you are planning to go to college,” Spar said. “I am hoping that we get some of you here five years from now.”
Admission officers also spoke to students about what it means to go to college, and talked about the types of classes the students should take in high school to prepare.
“It gives us new ideas of colleges we can visit and new experiences that we’ve never seen before,” said Arlene Centeno, an eighth-grade student at KIPP STARR.
Event organizers said that middle school students are the target audience for a program about the environment and college preparation.
Said Vivian Taylor, vice president of the Barnard President’s Office and cocreator of the event: “It is an opportunity for them to think about what they have to focus on for college. The end of high school is too late for that. … This is a great way to have a conversation about college prep and being more aware of the environment.”
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