BRANDEIS 7TH GRADERS HONE ADVOCACY SKILLS, HONOR CLIMATE REALITY BAY AREA

Greta Thunberg, the now 18-year-old youth climate activist, rightfully gets a lot of recognition for the work she has done to rally young people to the climate cause. But she is not the only teenager committed to demanding individuals, businesses, and governments take climate action. Here in the Bay Area, the students attending the Brandeis School of San Francisco exemplify Greta’s spirit. 

Each year the Brandeis San Francisco seventh graders are charged with choosing a social or environmental cause and a corresponding non-profit organization (NPO) for a year-long research and service project. For this “Tzedek" (Hebrew for Justice, or Righteousness) Project, they research their selected cause and NPO, and then write up and present their findings at a culminating event at the end of the school year. The students then give a monetary grant to each group studied from a dedicated Tzedek Fund set aside for this purpose by the school. 

This year, as in past years, the seventh graders chose a variety of causes to study from homelessness (human and animal) to mental illness, from pediatric cancer to senior hunger, and from youth education to climate change.  Fortunately for the Climate Reality Bay Area chapter (CRBA), a team of Brandeis students selected our chapter for the third consecutive year as the subject of their Tzedek project. At the culminating event on May 26, the three students who chose to highlight climate change and how CRBA is addressing the crisis spoke highly of their involvement with our group and then handed a check to CRBA Co-Chair, Harriet Harvey-Horn.

We are very fortunate that there are such dedicated youth climate activists here in the Bay Area.