Page 14 - gov-newsletterS11

In January, I signed up online to be Skidmore‟s campus coordinator for Power Shift 2011. Power Shift is the largest youth environmental conference in the nation; it takes place from April 15-18 in Washington, D.C. More than 10,000 people are expected to attend this year.

I am working with two other students (Rachel Chalat „12 and Anna Graves „14) to organize Power Shift for Skidmore; we have named our Power Shift group Skid Shift. We are collaborating with the members of the Energy Action Coalition, who run Power Shift, and the three of us have been working together since the start of the semester to recruit students to attend the conference. So far we have registered 90 students and are fast approaching 100. Skidmore is sending twice as many students to Power Shift 2011 as it did in 2009. Currently, Skidmore is sending the largest student delegation in the state.

We were originally aiming to send 60 people to the conference, but since we have surpassed that goal, we are now working on finding the funding for and figuring out the logistics of getting nearly 100 students to D.C. We have applied for and received funding from SGA, the Responsible Citizenship Task Force, and Student Opportunity Funds. Various clubs, notably the Environmental Action Club, are also providing financial support. We are currently seeking sponsorship and donations from various academic departments, the Sierra Club, relatives, and local businesses to make this venture possible. We have already raised most of the approximate $20,000 that is necessary to attend this conference.

I decided to become involved with organizing Skid Shift because of my experiences at Power Shift 2009. I spent that weekend attending training work-shops and lectures, lobbying my representatives, and participating in the protest that shutdown Capitol Power Plant, which used to burn coal to heat the Halls of Congress; at the time, this protest was the largest instance of mass civil disobedience against dirty energy in U.S. history.

Before attending the conference, I was only mildly interested in the environment. Afterwards, I was an environmentalist. Being around 10,000+ environ-mentalists for a weekend made the environmental movement real to me. The energy at the conference was nearly tangible, and it made me realize how much power lies in the people.

I‟ve since focused my government studies on the environment: I took Environmental Politics and Policy in the spring of 2010; for my Latin America and the U.S. course last fall, I researched the effects of NAFTA‟s environmental side agreement in U.S.-Mexico bilateral relations; this spring, I hope to focus my final essay for my International Human Rights class on something involving environmental justice.

This conference changed my life. I am ecstatic that so many Skidmore students are attending this year. We have the numbers to strengthen the environ-mental movement on campus and in the community, and we plan on having everyone who attends the conference to share what they learn with those who do not attend. We want students to implement programming on Earth Day, give presentations at Academic Festival, and take the initiative in making changes at Skidmore and in Saratoga. After all, as with any movement, the environmental movement is based on action, not just ideas.