Delaney Laffler

Project: Professional Internship with Summer Energy & Environmental Program Internship with Environmental Leaders of Color (ELOC)

When I started my six-week internship with Environmental Leaders of Color (ELOC), I was excited to work directly with students and learn more about community-based environmental education. I knew I wanted to see what kinds of environmental challenges young people would identify in their own communities, but I did not expect how much I would learn from watching them figure things out for themselves.

One of my favorite moments happened during a walk when we were collecting specimens for the students to use in their terrariums. One student came up to me holding a plant he had found and asked if he could use it. I had no idea what kind of plant it was, so we used an app we had introduced to the students in an earlier lesson to identify it. We discovered that it was actually a great plant for a terrarium. I loved watching him take something he was curious about, find the resources available to him, and figure out the answer. I did not need to know everything. I just needed to help him know where to look. That became one of the most important lessons I took away from this experience. Sustainability work does not always mean having the perfect answer. Sometimes, it means giving people the tools and confidence to ask questions and find solutions themselves.

This was especially clear during the students’ final presentations. One of the quieter groups was incredibly nervous about presenting their project to a panel of judges. They had a strong idea, but they did not seem confident in their ability to communicate it. After practicing with us, they asked us to do it again. On graduation day, they became more confident with every person who came to their table. Watching that transformation was one of the most rewarding parts of the entire program. Another group took this confidence even further. They developed a proposal for monitoring and reporting pollution in the Long Island Sound using buoys that could measure
pollution and emissions and help hold companies, boats, and airplanes accountable. Their idea was rooted in a place they genuinely cared about. They talked about going to the beach together when they were younger and how much they loved the Long Island Sound. Their connection to that place was what motivated them to protect it. They ultimately won second place out of sixteen teams, and I could not have been more proud of them.

This experience made the JTS principle of place-based sustainability feel much more tangible to me. The students were not learning about environmental problems in the abstract. They werelooking at the places they knew and loved, identifying challenges that affected those places, and imagining what could be done differently. Their solutions were creative precisely because they came from their own experiences. I also saw how important partnerships are to this work. I was fortunate to work alongside ELOC staff, facilitators, and my fellow intern, and some of my favorite moments were simply sitting down together and talking about our experiences. I came into the program hoping to learn from people who had experience working in sustainability and environmental justice, and I am leaving with people I genuinely consider friends and mentors.
Most of all, I am leaving with a greater appreciation for what happens when young people are given the knowledge, resources, and space to imagine change. They are not afraid to think outside of the box because they do not know what the box is. That willingness to imagine what is possible is something I hope to carry with me as I continue being a JTS fellow and working toward a more just and sustainable world.