This interview is part of April’s Spring Into Action series and conducted after GREENevada retreat by Jennifer Muratalla from Wooster High School and Reb Anderson. 

ACE: Share your name, your school and your grade.

JM: My name is Jennifer Anna Muratalla. I am a freshman at Wooster High School.

ACE: How did you find out about the GREENevada student leadership retreat?

JM: I found out about this retreat because of Robin & Hector [from Envirolution]. They came to our ELT & told us it would be tons of fun and very informational.

ACE: On Friday morning, we helped built a new garden at Urban Roots. Did you have fun doing that? Did you think it would be fun originally?

JM: At first I thought: Hey, I didn’t sign up to shovel goat poop! I signed up for fun stuff! But then I thought: I’m here to work and not to complain.

ACE: When you got to go around and meet all the 8 GREENevada partners, were there any things you learned that you wanted to bring back to your school and try out?

JM: I really liked the idea of reusable water bottles. I drink TONS of water.

ACE: Did you feel like the whole group of 40 students from 9 schools bonded over the weekend? When did that start to happen?

JM: Yes, I think all 9 schools did bond. I personally thought that Reed & Wooster dids bonded the best. It all started when we got to Portola. We all got to know each other and quickly started cracking jokes with each other.

ACE: Tell me about the Challenge Course on Saturday. Did you do something new that scared you? How’d you feel afterward?

JM: Let’s just say I faced a LOT of my fears at the challenge course. I had to trust people I have never met and climbed a HUGE tower. At the end I felt like I accomplished something I would’ve never done on my own.

ACE: Overall, what was best part of the weekend for you? Why?

JM: The best part was definitely Friday night. The reason I say this is because that night we really got to know each other and share some cool ideas on how to make our school more GREEN.

ACE: Does your school have a green team? After the retreat, did your team get inspired to take some next steps?

JM: Our school does have a green team – WHEAT, the Wooster High Environmental Action Team. Our team wants to apply for a Hydration Station. The reason we want to do this is because every week we recycle a HUGE amount of plastic bottles. This way kids can refill their reusable water bottles and save a lot of our resources.