Vail Christian High School teacher Sarah Hochtl keeps a three words in mind when educating young minds about environmental topics: awareness, attitude and action.
“If I bring them awareness (and) potentially change their attitude, then potentially they’ll take action in their community to make positive change,” she said in a recent interview.
Hochtl, alongside other educators across Eagle County, is playing a role in shaping student-led sustainability efforts throughout local schools and their surrounding communities. From clothing swaps and field trips to the local waste center to providing composting options in the schools, young students are learning what it means to be good stewards of the planet.
Hochtl, a teacher at VCHS for 15 years, works on first getting students to care. One of her classes is on food sustainability, and as part of their curriculum, she has students growing their own potatoes as a way to understand food systems.
Hochtl is also the faculty advisor for the Sustainability Squad, VCHS’ student-led sustainability club.
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From caring for the school’s greenhouse and managing waste at school events to volunteering for local sustainability efforts, the students are getting hands-on experience with how much change they can make.
The students have hosted a Green Week at school and even started a school composting program, where they gather any compostables that are picked up by the waste company, Vail Honeywagon. Hochtl said the students are hoping to build their own worm composting bins.
“I think it’s really important for them to connect these issues to their lives,” Hochtl said.
Across Eagle County School District, several eco-friendly initiatives have been put into action. In 2020, the County Board of Education established “Green Teams” to conduct waste audits at each of the district’s schools. Student teams were also created to educate them on waste reduction. The program has since ended after funding from the Secure Rural School grant stopped. However, several schools continue to involve student sustainability initiatives.
“It’s important for students to get involved because I think it gives them a sense of ownership over their own waste and their own use and their reuse of things, and if they feel a part of something, then they tend to take better care of the earth,” said Nicole Mink, a Green Team sponsor and science teacher at Eagle Valley High School.
She said when students feel like they have authority over the operation and can make a difference, it generates motivation to make change. Along with the waste audits, the Green Team also hosts a large clothing swap every year and promotes Earth Day with sustainability activities for the school.
“They have that spark and that energy to see the big picture and then see themselves in the big picture and then how do we motivate others to get on board,” Mink said. “They’re also that future generation, so some of that comes from (the idea that) we have to pick up from the past.”
Erin Park, a teacher and the faculty advisor for the Green Team at Battle Mountain, said the students in the club are super motivated to take part in the club.
Some of their projects include a used book sale fundraiser, local tree planting and revamping an outdoor space for BMHS students to use.
Park used to work with Walking Mountains and has experience in the local environmental world. During the club, she’ll bring in experts to talk about local sustainable issues or environmentally related careers. A fan favorite is the annual winter hut trip with Walking Mountains.
“You have to instill a love of place before they want to be stewards of that place,” she said.
Vail Mountain School senior Bergen Jacob is a perfect example of being a student steward for her community. One of the leaders of the school’s environmental club, she’s played a role in organizing how the club pushes sustainable initiatives in the school.
One of the projects she worked on is collecting old VMS uniforms and giving them back to the community. Rather than buying a whole new uniform, students can play their part by wearing the already-made items.
“With kids leaving every year … and different families having extra local wear, it seems like a very simple but also manageable and attainable way to help our school become more sustainable, especially because our school values that so much and encourages us to go after projects like that,” Jacob said.
She also helped run a clothing swap where members collected used clothes and sold them for $1. All the proceeds and remaining clothes went to the local nonprofit, The Kid’s Closet.
“I think for me, helping to contribute to school sustainability but also sustainability in our community is really important,” she said. “I’m just really grateful that I got the opportunity to do that, just because we live in such a beautiful valley, but also a valley (where) we face very head-on … the environmental concerns.”