Last year, GYF reached across the Atlantic and began delivering its education and recycling program to students in Accra, Ghana, in conjunction with the NYU Accra program. The following is a Q-and-A with GYF’s latest Ghana intern, Yvonna Pearson.

Tell us a little about your background. Where did you grow up, what are some things you did before you started working with GYF?

I was born and raised in Washington, D.C., and am the youngest of three children, two girls and one boy. Growing up in the suburbs of DC allowed me to become more connected with my surroundings. Whether I was going to the playground with other neighborhood children or exploring the outdoors while hanging in the pear tree in my backyard, I enjoyed taking part in the joys nature had to offer me. I attribute these early interactions to what later developed into a keen interest in how my surroundings worked. As a college student at New York University, I translated this into an internship in a research lab at Georgetown University in the biochemistry department. It was not until my second year at NYU that I was exposed to environmental science and could not get enough of the intricacies of the human impact on our environment and was motivated to become a part of the movement to lift this planet up out of the dire situation it is now in. Having now declared environmental science as my major, GYF has set me on the track to move, not only myself, but those who surround me in the same direction as well.

What has been the most gratifying part about teaching the GYF curriculum to the students?

I believe that the children I taught at La Enobal public school in Accra through GYF were the finest examples of where Ghana is now and where it will be in the future as far as environmental consciousness and development. Mostly due to the fact that the majority of the students at La Enobal public school were of financially deprived backgrounds, they did not have the exposure to environmentalism that children in more developed countries may have. But knowledge, especially such as this, should not be a privilege but rather a right. The most gratifying part about teaching the GYF curriculum to these students was having this right realized.

What part have the students reacted to most favorably?

The students at La Enobal were enthused from the moment they were given the task of becoming “environmental detectives” in the local communities. This task seemed to reach into them the most given the closeness they have to the people and places that surround them. Their eagerness to become a part of a solution to the many environmental issues about which they learned through the curriculum was also more cause to be the great detectives they became.

How can you judge whether the material is having an impact on them?

Throughout the lessons, I stressed the importance of taking charge and being a part of the solution to littering rather than a variable of the problem. After hosting a school clean-up day the children were exposed to the value of picking up litter rather than adding to the litter. I heard the impact of the material on them as I came to the school the next week and heard “pick up your trash, you must pick it up!” from a number of the students in my class!

Do you believe they will bring this information into their communities and make a difference?

 I do believe the students that I taught at La Enobal will bring this information into their communities. During the lessons, I heard the enthusiasm to improve upon their communities through their eagerness to answer questions as well as listening to examples of how they were reducing, reusing, or recycling in their daily activities. I also saw their willingness to bring about change through the more than 25 students, mostly from my class, who were eager to join the newly developed Eco-Force club, which is dedicated to the implementation of sustainable awareness through school activities.

Angelou Ezeilo speaking in Sisters Chapel

Angelou Ezeilo, Executive Director of the Greening Youth Foundation, has been awarded the prestigious 2011 Local Community Service Award by Spelman College, Ezeilo’s alma mater. In a ceremony on the school’s Atlanta campus on November 15, Spelman College President Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum presented Ezeilo with the award in recognition of the work she has done on behalf of young people and the environment with the founding of the Greening Youth Foundation.

“We are so delighted you are able to be back here with us certainly as a role model to all our students that are here, representing our tagline—a choice to change the world,” Tatum said in front of a packed house in Spelman’s Sisters Chapel. “Truly you are making that choice to change the world and enlivening our commitment to sustainability.”

In addition to a plaque, Ezeilo was presented with a mural illustrating the importance of recycling, which was done by Spelman’s Bonner Scholars Green Team, a group of exemplary Spelman undergraduates who have been working with Greening Youth Foundation to bring GYF’s environmental education curriculum to public school students in Atlanta.

“It’s such an inspiration to see a Spelman sister of mine come back as a woman and accept this award,” Bonner Scholar Delores Wilson told the audience as she presented the mural to Ezeilo. “I can only hope that after graduating from Spelman, I would impact the community as much as you have. To my other Spelman sisters, I charge you to follow in the footsteps of Miss Ezeilo.”

Fighting back tears, Ezeilo took the stage and said that it was such a great honor to return to her alma mater 20 years after her graduation and receive the prestigious award. She credited her parents, Walter and Helen Chiles, and Spelman College for playing such crucial roles in shaping the woman she is today.

“The nurturing I received here is like no other,” Ezeilo said. “I learned the true meaning of sisterhood here. I have friends all over the world, and we are still so close. The networking we formed here was so amazing. Thank you to Spelman for giving me my wings. When I left here, there was nothing I felt I couldn’t do.”

Past winners of the Spelman Local Community Service Award include Fulton County Commissioner Nancy Boxill, Judge Glenda Hatchett, 100 Black Men of America and the National Black Arts Festival.

By Sauda Jackson, GYF Program Manager

Who said getting dirty was bad? As a member of the Public Land Corps, that’s part of the job!

Greening Youth Foundation’s most recent Public Land Corps members spent three and a half weeks at the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park (CHCH) in Ft. Oglethorpe, GA, not only getting dirty but also performing important work at the site. The African-American crew consisted of two Team Leaders and six Team Members, who worked from October 11 to October 28 on an initiative called the “Cultural Landscapes Improvement Projects.” The activities of the crew included training on conservation and restoration techniques, pressure-washing and walnut shell blasting procedures for those structures, and subsequent work on park monuments and artifacts. The crew also did some exotic plant control, landscaping and fence re-building projects.

GYF has partnered with the National Park Service to restore, protect, and rehabilitate our national parks. Trails need repairing, wildlife needs protection, historic structures are crumbling, and the job market is sinking. GYF seeks to change that by providing NPS jobs for young people ages 16-24.

GYF crews have broken critical ground on many levels to increase the diversity in National Park Sites. As the only Public Land Corps in the Southeast Region, GYF continues to train and recruit young people for these positions. At Chickamauga and Chattanooga, the foundation was fortunate to partner with Atlanta Youth Build to include some of the youth from its construction and leadership training program. Atlanta Youth Build allows youth and young adults to gain job experience and leadership skills as they work toward earning their GED.

The Chickamauga and Chattanooga crew was one of the hardest working groups GYF has had this year. The young people showed up prepared to work hard and do their best. “The crew sacrificed a lot to be able to work on this project,” said GYF Project Manager Mike Fynn. “They had to drive two hours one-way to the park every morning, but their desire to learn new things, help conserve the park’s resources, and get paid doing this made it worth it. They raised their maturity level right in front of my eyes over these three weeks. That is what the project was meant to do—create exposure and generate the interaction between diverse youth and National Park sites through a combination of education, conservation training, and service work at the park.”

Cannon and monument at Chickamauga

The GYF crew was initially taken aback by the very visible remnants of the Old South they encountered at Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park, which is celebrated in Confederate lore because it was the site of the last major Confederate victory in the Civil War. But the crew members did a great job in learning how to work in an environment that wasn’t immediately comfortable to them—and their presence also served to expose the park staff and visitors to more diversity than they are accustomed to seeing at the park.

“We were very glad to have them—at least I was,” said Park Supervisor Jerry Godfrey. “They helped us out a lot in executing much needed work at the park. We need crews like this here to help us with some of this conservation work.”

The team member all said they are looking forward to working with GYF again.

“If we attained a constant flow of crews and teams working in all of the parks in the Southeast Region, we will change the face and attitudes of a nation of park-goers and employees,” said GYF Program Manager Sauda Jackson.

Because GYF is in regular contact with an enormous pool of diverse young people desperate for these opportunities, the foundation is eager to get more projects from NPS to put these young people to work.

Trunk show attendees model the collection. GYF Executive Director Angelou Ezeilo (second from left), GYF International Board member Christa Sanders (third from left). All photos by Stephanie Allen.

Greening Youth Foundation is bringing a sparkly new twist to fundraising! In October, the foundation hosted an intimate fundraising event entitled “Pretty Little Things: A trunk show benefit for Greening Youth Foundation.”

When GYF’s international board member, Christa Sanders, who is the Associate Director for New York University’s Globalization program in Accra, Ghana, calls and says that she has an idea to support GYF, you listen! Christa shared scrumptious pieces of jewelry that she has collected, pieces that are known by the Smithsonian and the like as the Unknown Collection (unknowncollection.com). Attendees were able to add to their personal collections pieces from all over the continent, from such countries as Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria and Tanzania. The attendees were blown away by the gorgeous pieces, which were like works of art.

GYF would like to thank everyone who attended the trunk show benefit. The proceeds will be used to support GYF’s National Youth Corps and environmental education programs in the U.S. and abroad.  During these tough economic times, the GYF team understands how tight resources can be. As such, we take every donation and contribution made to our cause very seriously. Therefore, we continue to be lean and efficient so that a majority of the funds can go directly to our programs.

Stay tuned for our next intimate event during the holidays!

GYF interns