VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — The Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s Brock Environmental Center has not only achieved one of the toughest building standards in the world, but it also houses a program that teaches one of the toughest crowds — high schoolers.
It offers them an opportunity to expand their understanding of sustainability and natural resource stewardship.
Staff members at the Brock Environmental Center in Virginia Beach are doing their best to help guide the next generation. The day we visited, students at the Brock Environmental Center were building tiny solar-powered cars as one of their renewable energy projects.
This is all part of their Environmental Studies Program — a partnership between Virginia Beach Public Schools and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.
The alternative school is connected to the environmental center, with the Lynnhaven River as their backdrop instead of a typical classroom.
“The Lynnhaven Inlet is an incredible teaching tool to utilize the ecosystems that are here. Kids are out here every single day learning by doing, and that's empowerment,” said their program coordinator and teacher Chris Freeman.
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Students apply for the unique two-year program in the 10th grade. Once accepted, for half a day every day, they come to the Brock Environmental Center for hands-on learning about the environment and regional resiliency.
“We help students go from saving the Bay to saving the world through this program,” said Freeman.
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“When you protect the environment, that gives the next generation a better world to live in,” said student Xavier Santiago, a junior in the program.
The classroom itself, like the rest of the center, is built using reclaimed material. It has treated rainwater collected from the roof for drinking water and composting toilets.
“They save so many gallons of water needed to, you know, when you normally flush down, waste down the toilet,” said senior student Kevin Mamaril.
So far this year, students have studied topics like flood mitigation, oyster restoration and biodiversity.
“Just learning about all the issues there [are] and how to still be hopeful,” said senior student Maty Gueye. "Despite that, I think learning about all the challenges people are facing around you is really important."
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Their lessons have even inspired them to pursue careers in environmental sciences.
“Before this program, I had no real conceptualization of who I wanted to be and where I wanted to go with my life,” Mamaril told me. “But this has sort of streamlined that process and made it very easy to view different opportunities.”
“Environmental policy, for me, has been my main focus. I was hoping to go to Virginia Tech to study that,” said Gueye. “But that's where my passion lies.”
In the meantime, they’re preaching a greener world to everyone they know, from tackling recycling to encouraging their peers to boycott fast fashion.
"I have told like everybody I know, because I just love being here so much, and seeing the things that we could do and prevent from all these problems,” said Santiago. “It's just like, it really gets me going.”
Maty is even currently serving on the Green Ribbon Committee as an adviser to city council.
“We're working with the city, voting on plans to help better alleviate whatever situations that we have going on in this community,” she said.
The students are ready to get out into the world to help change it.
“The environment supports, obviously, all life on earth,” said Mamaril. "And the better we treat it, the longer we can live on this beautiful planet."
This summer will be their third year of graduates leaving the program — the next generation of environmental leaders.
