This is a guest post by Gracie Currier-Tate, student at New Vista High School in Colorado.

On September 8th, ACE (Alliance for Climate Education) visited New Vista High School (NVHS) for a very special annual treat. Amy Atkins, a senior educator for ACE, presented an interactive video with a mission to educate and inspire students to battle climate change. It’s up to date with the latest scientific information, and it just might make you cry. Whether you cry out of hope or out of sadness, the ACE presentation is guaranteed to make you want to make a change.

To kick off our environmentally friendly year, the Earth Task Force (ETF) brought the ACE presentation to NVHS to inspire and educate students about climate change. Showing the ACE Presentation to the whole school is a great way to reach every single student in a meaningful way. As new students come in and old students leave the ETF wants to remind them of their power. Even if you aren’t as crazy about the environment as ETF, there are endless ways to help the environment almost effortlessly. By showing this presentation, students get a wake up call about their mother earth, and what they can do to help her.

To conclude the presentation, each student is challenged to a DOT, or a do-one-thing. A DOT is a small pledge a student can take to make their world a little greener. A dot could be as simple as bringing a re-useable mug to your favorite cafe, or buying local organic vegetables. The ETF is constantly amazed with the creative ideas that students come up with! This year as a follow up project to the presentation, students wrote their DOTs on little green circles. The whole school’s DOTs are now displayed along the walls of the front office.

Amy Atkins has gotten rave reviews for her presentations, and students often come up to her feeling totally inspired and ready for action. We are pleased to have her back every year.

ACE has been a partner with the ETF and the Cottonwood Institute for three years now and has helped us to keep track of our projects and come up with fresh ideas to keep the student body motivated to change the world.