By Jenny Wolan, Dundee Crown High School, Algonquin, Illinois

On September 25th, 2010 students from all over Chicago schools come to join the very powerful ACE leadership training. What was the training all about?

Twenty-five students came to learn about how to create and achieve their ideas around greening up their schools! Here’s what we did…

“I had a good idea about creating a windmill by our field at school and am starting to present the idea to teachers and administrators,” said Nicole Glaza, Stagg High School.

The students at the training were committed to being leaders in their schools and met their team members by starting off with a game of Bingo and sharing ideas. Then, we split into groups of seven to eight members and made frames made of Twizzlers, Sour Patch Kids, pins and recycled paper. The lesson learned was that we could ask each other for support and help!

“My favorite part of the training was definitely meeting new people with the same interests,” said Ashley Klesken, Fanwick High School.

At lunch, we were able to chow down on turkey sandwiches, veggie wraps and vegan wraps with cookies all donated by the Inspiration Cafe! The meal had students thinking about implementing organic gardens at school as we moved on to brainstorm the best ways to structure our teams and delegate work.

“We have a biology teacher that has planted a garden with growing pumpkins, squash and green peppers. Students work to get volenteer hours in the garden,” said Violet Gallardo, North Grand High School.

To wrap up the whole day, at the end of the training students participated in a public speaking activity where one has to keep talking till one of the two other partners turns around to face the crowd to rant! The activity was a great success — check out this video Elisha Hall put together for more!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFIzdQV3YbI