On April 11, Lincoln’s Environmental Justice class, in collaboration with Ida B. Wells High School’s Eco Action Club, hosted a Youth Climate Summit to spread awareness about climate change and encourage youth action.
The summit from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. was filled with keynote speakers, tables from multiple local environmental organizations, a thrift pop-up and free food and beverages.
The majority of the summit included sessions where students and passionate environmentalists could hear from professionals and student activists in the environmental justice community.
Seniors Leah Almeida and Claire Tagalog were the lead ambassadors at the summit.
“We have been hearing a lot about young people who are giving up hope right now or feel super discouraged about the climate crisis. We wanted to give people some hope back with this and show them that they can make meaningful and impactful change or get involved in some small way,” said Almeida.
The funding for the summit came from the Portland Clean Energy Community Benefits Fund (PCEF), which supports community-based projects in Portland. According to Tim Swinehart, the Environmental Justice class teacher, the class receives $10,000 each year to fund projects like the summit.
ambassadors of the Youth Summit and leaders of the silverware project.
By Megan Whitten
According to Almeida, the summit was a class decision.
“One day, we were brainstorming what to do with the grant money, and someone threw out the idea of a summit, and since all the decisions we make in this class are a very democratic process, we just voted on it, and that’s how we decided,” said Almeida.
Planning for the summit was a two- month process. Students in the Environmental Justice class broke into committees to organize logistics. The process was entirely student-run, according to Swinehart, and took hard work.
“There were some people there, some organizations and even some workshops I had never talked to,” said Swinehart. “I didn’t have a single email exchange with those people. It was all students.” Swinehart started the Environmental Justice class to encourage events like this and for students to realize that they can create real change.
“Sometimes in environmental education we learn about how terrible things are, and they are terrible… And so what do you do with that?… It can actually be really disempowering and overwhelming… I’m really strongly of the mind that collective action is our best antidote to both climate despair and anxiety,” said Swinehart.
At Lincoln, Tagalog and Almeida are pursuing collective action. With the collaboration of other students on the PSEF grant team and science teacher Chau Phan Mende, Almeida and Tagalog have been advocating for metal silverware in the cafeteria since the fall of 2024. After months of navigating the bureaucracy at Portland Public Schools, the initiative was launched on April 21.
“Our [school] culture is that we prioritize convenience over maybe a small change that could be beneficial,” said Almeida. “We throw away three thousand utensils a week [at Lincoln], which is over 90,000 a year, which is an insane amount of plastic.”
By Meghan Whitten
Although this change will benefit the environment, students’ likelihood of placing silverware in designated areas rather than in the trash is a considerable concern for Tagalog.
“This inconvenience [metal silverware] is actually a big thing we do have to think about because a stipulation of our pilot program working out and us being able to do this next year is that we don’t lose too much silverware,” said Tagalog.
Almeida and Tagalog want to reassure Lincoln students that the silverware is cleaned in an industrial dishwasher. Although they often felt disheartened by the climate crisis, their passion for the environment and student advocacy has allowed them to make a difference.
“Leah and I were both frustrated with how little impact we were making in the [environmental justice movement],” said Tagalog. “It was such a full circle moment to be here with the same person from middle school doing such a huge action and succeeding so fully at it. [It] was so gratifying to me [to] have the resources and have the people who are interested and want to work as a team to make it happen.”
