Power Shift, or how I spent my spring break
Chris Maggio
Issue date: 3/19/09 Section: News
My original intent in attending Power Shift '09, the largest youth conference on climate change in our nation's history, was to take an inexpensive trip to Washington D.C., learn a few things, and then resume my life as it had been before spring break.
I soon discovered that as the first two parts of this plan succeeded, the last part had to fail.
Thanks to the kindness of numerous students from four different colleges, I was able to travel to Washington. I learned about Power Shift through a friend, the president of Marshall University's Student Sierra Coalition.
Realizing that the conference ran during my spring break, I expressed interest in attending Power Shift.
I knew of no other students from Capital who were attending, so she helped me to get in contact with students from La Roche College and Ohio State University who could provide a ride.
Once I reached our nation's capital, some students from the University of Pittsburgh allowed me to stay with them.
As my faith in human generosity was being renewed, I learned more than a few things at Power Shift.
I learned that over 12,000 students from all 50 states and even a few other countries came to spend their weekend at an environmental conference held in the Walter E. Washington Convention Center.
I learned from an environmental workshop how to build student leadership and action capacity. I learned from speakers and panels that global warming is real and clean coal is not.
Just ask Bill McKibben, leader of 350.org and its efforts to lower atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide to 350 parts per million. Or ask the people of Kingston, Tennessee, a town that was buried in ten city blocks of sludge after a local coal plant exploded.
I realized during the conference's state breakout session that my life, upon returning to Capital, could not revert back to the way it was before spring break.
To begin the session, each school's name was called. The students from each school were to then stand. There were 411 students total from Ohio. "Oberlin!" 108 students stood. "OU!" 50 students stood. "Capital!"
Only one student stood up.
The room burst into applause.
It was the most overwhelming and exhilarating moment of my life. Overwhelming because I realized that, if I did not share the kindness and knowledge I had received at Power Shift with Capital, no one else would.
Exhilarating because I realized, too, the positive change that I could bring to Capital, to Ohio, to the world.
Which is why, on returning to Capital, my life has not reverted back to the way it was. I'm much busier now. I've joined the Ohio Student Environmental Coalition.
I've joined Capital's new Environmental Service Organization, just as anyone on this campus who wishes to preserve their earth should.
But most importantly, I've joined 12,000 other students who will not rest until the power has been shifted away from the people behind harmful energy so that we may create a green, peaceful, economically viable, and socially just world.
cmaggio@capital.edu
I soon discovered that as the first two parts of this plan succeeded, the last part had to fail.
Thanks to the kindness of numerous students from four different colleges, I was able to travel to Washington. I learned about Power Shift through a friend, the president of Marshall University's Student Sierra Coalition.
Realizing that the conference ran during my spring break, I expressed interest in attending Power Shift.
I knew of no other students from Capital who were attending, so she helped me to get in contact with students from La Roche College and Ohio State University who could provide a ride.
Once I reached our nation's capital, some students from the University of Pittsburgh allowed me to stay with them.
As my faith in human generosity was being renewed, I learned more than a few things at Power Shift.
I learned that over 12,000 students from all 50 states and even a few other countries came to spend their weekend at an environmental conference held in the Walter E. Washington Convention Center.
I learned from an environmental workshop how to build student leadership and action capacity. I learned from speakers and panels that global warming is real and clean coal is not.
Just ask Bill McKibben, leader of 350.org and its efforts to lower atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide to 350 parts per million. Or ask the people of Kingston, Tennessee, a town that was buried in ten city blocks of sludge after a local coal plant exploded.
I realized during the conference's state breakout session that my life, upon returning to Capital, could not revert back to the way it was before spring break.
To begin the session, each school's name was called. The students from each school were to then stand. There were 411 students total from Ohio. "Oberlin!" 108 students stood. "OU!" 50 students stood. "Capital!"
Only one student stood up.
The room burst into applause.
It was the most overwhelming and exhilarating moment of my life. Overwhelming because I realized that, if I did not share the kindness and knowledge I had received at Power Shift with Capital, no one else would.
Exhilarating because I realized, too, the positive change that I could bring to Capital, to Ohio, to the world.
Which is why, on returning to Capital, my life has not reverted back to the way it was. I'm much busier now. I've joined the Ohio Student Environmental Coalition.
I've joined Capital's new Environmental Service Organization, just as anyone on this campus who wishes to preserve their earth should.
But most importantly, I've joined 12,000 other students who will not rest until the power has been shifted away from the people behind harmful energy so that we may create a green, peaceful, economically viable, and socially just world.
cmaggio@capital.edu
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