Education

This past summer Alliance Vice President of Education Merrilee Harrigan traveled to Tijuana, Mexico for an out-of-the-ordinary vacation. Far from the clichés of margaritas and siestas, Merrilee was one of four chaperones to accompany a group of 13 American youths (including her 17-year old son, Ian MacMillan) who rolled up their sleeves and got to work building houses for disadvantaged community members with the volunteer program Esperanza International.

This year, students in the sixth-grade class at Friends Academy in Locust Valley, NY, chose four organizations and charities to receive profits from a year’s worth of fundraising; among them was the Alliance to Save Energy.

The Friends Academy year-long read-a-thon, in which students seek reading sponsors at the rate of a dollar a book, is a sixth-grade tradition. With these funds and others generated from additional community service projects, the 60 sixth-grade students raised around $8,000 this year.

The Alliance applauds Ashley O’Neill.

A few weeks before graduating from California State University (CSU) San Bernardino, Ashley, an intern with the Alliance’s Green Campus program, received her first job offer: Marketing Analyst in the California Alternative Rates Program (CARE) for residential energy efficiency at Southern California Edison (SCE).

This year, more than 8,240 students in Ohio will learn about where energy comes from, how we use energy and the importance of energy efficiency and conservation. Thanks to funding provided by the Ohio Department of Development, Office of Energy Efficiency, the Alliance to Save Energy will provide energy education resources to elementary school teachers in Ohio free of charge.

Dana C. Christensen is Associate Laboratory Director for Energy and Engineering Sciences Directorate at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Tennessee.

Since 2004, Virginia’s York County School Division has reduced its energy consumption by more than 48 billion Btu, saving more than $1 million in energy costs. The division’s three-member energy management team has developed and implemented an aggressive two-pronged approach for reducing pollution and energy waste.

Two California school districts scored high marks in the subject of energy efficiency in May. As part of the Green Schools ‘Model District’ initiative, schools in Hesperia and Murrieta School districts had their facilities scored for energy efficiency. So far, nine out of twelve schools in the Murrieta District have scored at or above the 75th percentile. In Hesperia, three out of five schools are performing above 75%, with Mesquite Trails Elementary School charting 100%.

Clocking miles and saving kilowatts, the Energy Hog has been stirring up trouble and inspiring energy education in classrooms around the country by helping over 11,000 kids discover the wonders of energy: where it comes from, how to use it, and why it should be saved. Some highlights of the Hog’s travels: