Alicia Wong is an ACE Action Fellow who is writing a monthly blog series on her experiences with her fellowship. In September, she wrote about how her club won recycling bins for her school through the Coca-Cola–Keep America Beautiful Bin Grant program.

Hello everyone! Happy October. I’m a senior at Reed High School in Sparks, Nevada and I’m an ACE Action Fellow. I’m writing a monthly blog about my experiences in my fellowship, as well as leading my school’s green club, the Eco-Warriors. Two weeks ago, our club got interviewed by a local TV station! However, things didn’t go too smoothly…

Last year, my club was working on an idling campaign to make our school an Idle Free School. We collected data and shared knowledge about the benefits of not idling with the student body. Car and bus idling was a big problem at our school, but after the campaign, we reduced idling at Reed high school by 63%! It was a big success, and I am still working on helping other schools become Idle-Free.

At the end of the school year last year, I wrote an article about the Idle Free campaign that we wanted to have published in a local paper. With the support of the Public Information Officer for our school district, Washoe County School District, we decided to wait until the fall to release it. The Public Information Officer released my article last week and it got picked up! Our local News 4 TV station put the article up on their website — check it out!

It turned out that another TV station wanted to do an interview with our club. Last week, my adviser sent out a Remind101 message about an interview that was going to happen at lunch. She wanted about 2-3 people to be interviewed. The club Vice President, Issac Echegoyen, and I were the people who showed up. When we walked to the front of the school to meet the reporter, we did not know what to expect at all. After waiting for awhile, we saw a woman with a camera. As we walked over to introduce ourselves, I realized her microphone said “Univisión”. That’s when I realized this was for a Spanish channel. My mind went blank, and I started to go over any of the Spanish I knew in my head. I thought, “This is it, this is where three years of Spanish will have finally paid off.”

The reporter asked us if we spoke Spanish. I can understand it fairly well, but I wouldn’t speak it on television. I was too afraid too. Luckily, Issac could understand it a lot better than I could. After he was interviewed, we found two more Eco-Warriors, Karen Martinez and Maria Jacinto, who could speak Spanish or understand it.

It was a crazy, yet good experience. However, I was disappointed at the other students from my school. During the recording, they were being disrespectful and making rude comments. Luckily the reporter said she could make sure that that footage was not in the video. I wish we had scheduled the interview after school or during class, because it would have been quieter, and there wouldn’t be any distracting students.

This was a good experience, but I wish I was more prepared. Next time I will get the reporter’s name, and give her my card. I’d also try to talk with them ahead of time so we’d know what questions we’d be asked and could prepare for them. Hopefully next time the Eco-warriors are interviewed, it will go more smoothly.