Newsroom

On CIUS Center Youth Day, 50 DC area high school students from Georgetown Day School, Washington Latin Public Charter School, DC International School, and Roosevelt High School visited the CIUS Center for a day of exploring US-China environmental collaboration. To start the day off, students heard from a panel of experts offering career advice as well as an in depth understanding of the current status of environmental collaboration between the US and China. Panelists included: Brenda Doroski, Senior Advisor in the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of International and Tribal Affairs, Xingyu Wang. Director of Program Management at the International Fund for China’s Environment, and Danielle Wilson, a Schwarzman Fellow at the Wilson Center’s China Environment Forum. At the conclusion of the panel discussion, students and teachers had the opportunity to ask panelists about topics ranging from their day-to-day work to methods for improving global implementation of environmental sustainability practices.

Following the discussion, in small groups, students participated in a simulation challenging them to develop environmental policy recommendations as members of a mock US-China Environmental Collaboration Committee. Topics covered included air quality, water quality, habitat loss/endangered species, and e-waste management.  Working with volunteer facilitators, as representatives of either the US or China, students discussed the best ways to tackle their issue and developed recommendations ranging from implementing new community wide e-waste collection systems to creating technology sharing programs between the US and China to improve water management. Students presented their recommendations and received feedback encouraging them to continue considering how their ideas could have a real impact on the future of our environment.

To end the day, in partnership with Washington Parks and People, students participated in a service project at Meridian Hill/Malcolm X Park. It was a beautiful day and students had an opportunity to learn about the history of the park while trimming hedges, clearing the walkways of debris, and removing litter. It was an excellent opportunity for students to engage in their local community while also recognizing the individual impact that they can each have in ensuring that their communities are well kept, safe, and welcoming.

It was an educational and fun-filled day and the CIUS Center looks forward to continuing to provide local Chinese language and cultures learners with opportunities to expand their knowledge while highlighting the importance of global education.