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| Courtesy photo |
| Freshman Lauren Kastner presented her brainstorming group’s findings to the group at large at the end of the Clean Energy Economy Forum in Washington, D.C., in December. |
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The Clean Energy Economy Forum drew more than 120 youth leaders, experts and advocates from public and private sectors to Washington, D.C., to brainstorm with one another and with Cabinet members on solutions to energy issues. Kastner points out in her blog the ways her journalism training prepared her to network with high-powered players in this field.
Kastner jumped into journalism as well as campus activities when she arrived at IU this fall. She has interned with Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign, Coal Free IU, working to transition campus to clean and renewable energy, and was the media coordinator for the group this semester. She will be president of Coal Free IU in the spring.
A Columbus, Ind., native, Kastner is pursuing a journalism degree, a certificate in public affairs at the IU School of Public and Environmental Affairs, and a minor in Latin.
Reflections
by Lauren Kastner |
| Courtesy photo |
| Kastner got involved in Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign, Coal Free IU, as communications coordinator when she arrived on campus this fall. She will be the organization’s president in the spring semester. |
Because of the work I had done this semester with Sierra Club, my name was passed along as an outstanding youth leader in environmentalism to the White House and I jumped on the opportunity. The forum was Dec. 3 and I received the invitation on Nov. 25 — just a week’s notice to get my mind around this trip and get myself to D.C. I was hesitant to just pick up and leave, but my family was incredibly supportive and I booked a flight that night (on the White House’s, tab no less!).
D.C.-based Energy Action Coalition pulled together about 40 other organizers like me from all over the country who received the invitation from the White House and helped us with our travel and hotel accommodations and also prepared us really well before going into the forum.
We spent five hours before the forum preparing and brainstorming for the event. We conducted briefings on the latest developments in energy legislation, established what we wanted our united message to be, what we want to see in 2010, brainstormed strong questions to ask of our Cabinet-level panelists, what we wanted to get from the White House and also the message we wanted to leave with them, and of course networked like crazy.
The other people at the conference were from all kinds of environmental organizations: Repower America, PIRG, Restoring Eden, SSC, Green Peace, a Chinook reservation and many others. There were Silicon Valley entrepreneurial 20-somethings who started a green software company, and a 15-year-old and his mother from Ventura County who started Kids Vs. Global Warming and is the youngest trained presenter in the country of Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth.
I can’t even express what an incredible feeling it was to be sitting in the same room with some of these youth participants and hearing all of the unbelievable things my peers — MY peers! — have accomplished and are doing now in their communities. As the second youngest person in the room, I felt so welcome and in my element and I am proud that I was able to hold my own and step up as a brainstorm leader.
So, after five hours of wrapping our minds around the task at hand, we trudged in the rain to the Eisenhower Executive Office Building just a few blocks away to put ourselves to work.
During the first part of the conference, we heard from Jon Carson, chief of staff of the Council on Environmental Quality; Jody Freeman from the White House Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy; chair of the Council on Environmental Quality Nancy Sutley; Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar; Secretary of Energy Steven Chu; administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency Lisa Jackson; and Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis. Salazar and Chu sat on a panel together and took questions followed by Jackson and Solis sitting on the panel taking questions. The panels were moderated and each panel took about five questions each.
After the panel, we were assigned to breakout groups so that the White House could learn from us and hear our ideas about a clean energy economy. During the breakout session, I was in a group of 12 other people from the conference and sat down with Kal Penn (yes, from Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle and the TV show House) from the Office of Public Engagement and Allison Zelman from the Office of Legislative Affairs to have a free flowing conversation about how we can strengthen the relationship between the youth energy movement and the White House.
While everyone in attendance worked in break out groups, Greg Nelson from the Office of Public Engagement and Christine Glunz from the Council on Environmental Quality answered questions from online Facebook participants.
We got a lot of our questions answered and we were able to provide feedback that the White House was seeking. This was probably the most beneficial part of the forum because it wasn’t censored in anyway and we all felt comfortable sharing our ideas and getting our voices heard. One of the men in my group was the inventor of a device that could power electronics like an iPod by the use of kinetic energy generated from his body’s movement. The device was charging his iPod at the same rate and strength as a wall outlet would have, but it was essentially generating free electricity. It was these kind of anecdotal encounters that made the whole trip so conducive to expression of ideas.
I had a lot of confidence during this part of the conference to speak up and share my own ideas, despite being intimidated by age differences and my peers’ track records. I attribute this confidence to my training in journalism because I have been conditioned to speak up and ask the tough questions. I think my training in journalism has given me an incredibly useful set of skills in any situation to become a communicator.
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| Photo by Lauren Kastner |
| Group members kept running themes and ideas on paper on whiteboards as their sessions were underway. Later, they presented their ideas to the large group. |
The general consensus from the White House representatives and from the youth participants at the conference was that communication, opportunity and engagement has to continue to get anything done on this urgent issue. As Energy Action Coalition leader Jessy Tolkan said yesterday in so many words, we have one shot to get this right and the window of opportunity is now.
I flew back to Indianapolis early the next morning and I wasn’t even on the ground two hours before I had to head directly to class to present an English project. I don’t think I am ever going to really catch my breath until winter break, but for this cause I wouldn’t have it any other way.
I was able to take a lot away from this experiences and I am so happy to share everything I know and learned at the White House. Most important, take time to get inspired by something–energy related or not–and start acting on that today.