The Greenpoint YMCA has received a gift of $150,000 from Exxon Mobil Corporation to create a program called the “ExxonMobil Green Team” designed to foster a greater sense of environmental literacy and a deeper spirit of community service among city’s youth. This is the largest gift in the history of the Greenpoint YMCA.

The ExxonMobil Green Team program will nurture tomorrow’s future scientists and innovators, teaching New York City teens to be more creative and aware of environmental issues in their own backyard. The Wallerstein Collaborative for Urban Environmental Education at New York University will lead the program’s place-based curriculum, which will connect students’ learning to the places where they live, work and learn.  Students will participate in workshops, laboratory sessions and field trips that integrate science, technology, history and art.  Environmental professionals, including educators, historians, geologists, engineers and community leaders, will lead the program, exposing participants to a wide range of environmental careers.

“We are delighted to partner with ExxonMobil on this wonderful program and grateful for this extraordinary gift, the largest in the Greenpoint YMCA’s history,” said Sean Andrews, Vice President of Operations at the YMCA of Greater New York. “This ExxonMobil Green Team program combines two things we strive to do at every YMCA in the city—inspire more people ‘think green’  and help teens explore ways to work for positive change in their communities.”

“Through the Green Team program, ExxonMobil is able to provide high school students with relevant hands-on job experience, while emphasizing the importance of environmental stewardship, technology and community service,” said Carolina Asirifi, executive with ExxonMobil Environmental Services. “The projects they undertake this summer will leave a lasting impression that the Greenpoint neighborhood will be able to enjoy for many years.”

Program teens will participate in a range of fun and educational activities, including:

• Working with solar energy consultant Solar One on alternative clean energy sources, including building solar cars and exploring ways to conserve energy in their own homes. 
• Conducting water quality tests on the East River, identifying water contaminants with the help of NYU’s water chemistry lab, and posting findings online.
• Visiting Rooftop Farms and applying sustainable techniques to their own project in Lentol Garden, Greenpoint.
• Taking on the role of “tree advocates” in their community, which has lost 1,000 trees in the past.
• Learning to identify street trees and how to care for newly planted trees, and becoming certified in caring for NYC street trees through a workshop with Trees NY.

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Comments

Rene Bouchard

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There is an excellent team at the Greenpoint YMCA to implement this important program. I'm very pleased to see this critical funding directed in such a way.

Friday 16 July 2010, 07:52

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