Students from the Region Gathered at Prince William Forest Park Last Week for an Intensive Grassroots Training Summer Program
There’s no better place to be inspired to organize a mass movement around climate change than in nature itself. That is exactly where the Sierra Student Coalition (SSC), a student-run arm of the Sierra Club decided to host its annual SPROG (or summer program) for the Mid-Atlantic region. Roughly 30 students from Mid-Atlantic high schools and colleges as well as several SSC trainers gathered at Camp Orenda in Prince William Forest Park last week to learn the basics of grassroots organizing and more.
As a participant, I found myself surrounded by 30 top-notch individuals all eager to learn how to have a greater impact on the issues they cared most about. There were student experts on everything from Sustainable Agriculture to Mountaintop Removal to Sustainable Endowments; which provided an opportunity for lots of learning and a free flow of ideas.
Trainings were quite intensive as we learned about planning matrices and all the tactics associated with successfully executing a campus campaign. Everything from active listening to lobbying primary campus targets was covered in the course of our week in the woods. Now it wasn’t all work; our group was able to go on a hike almost everyday and we eventually found one amazing spot for a swimming hole in a creek along one of the trails. Prince William Forest Park is a beautiful place, and really easy to get to as it is just off I-95 at exit 150. Nightly campfires were the norm, and our vegetarian meals prepared by the SSC staff were delightful and a new experience for me.
All in all, the experience of SPROG has left me ready to take effective action as I return to campus at the University of Richmond this fall. My organization RENEW (Richmond Environmental Network for Economic Willpower) is still in its infancy, but I believe we are poised for an incredible year of environmental changes on-campus. What’s even more exciting is that I now have 30 new friends working toward the same ends at their schools this year, and I have no doubt that this movement is about to take a giant leap forward.
