MarinSEL Student Life Video – Click here to watch!
Here’s what our students say about MarinSEL:
“I love the sense of family we have in within the program.” —Angelica
“The outside, community relationships are helping us grow, both through projects as well as helping us learn how the ‘real world’ works.” —Sofia
“What I love about MarinSEL is the togetherness and trust we’ve built throughout a couple of short months!” —Cynthia
“I really enjoy the hands-on way of learning.” —Patrick
“MarinSEL has a small group class feeling.” —Merone
“I feel that in MarinSEL a small group of people can make a big difference.” —Brenda
Student Stories:
Amy Muithya
Coming into the School of Environmental Leadership, Amy did not know anyone. She felt alone, shy, and closed off. In addition, she was overwhelmed by the drive to solve climate change alone! Since her beginning at the SEL, she has learned to love collaborating with her community and classmates because it has shown her many different angles to approach the daunting climate change challenge. She has learned that she can chip away at the issue. In the future, she hopes to work on policy that continues to chip away at this issue until it gets smaller and smaller.
“I’ve never experienced not knowing anyone in the room. I had to go through that and eventually at the end of the year I got the Shining Star Award for the Most Personable Growth, and I’m really happy about that because it was a struggle for me to adjust socially and culturally. I used to be someone who just did the same tasks that I knew, but I eventually had to go out of my comfort zone and do things that I usually wouldn’t do, and I think that’s an aspect of leadership that is not really emphasized. You have to be adaptable to different situations. I want to use my leadership skills to create policies that surrounds improving the environment, but also I really want to do social justice work. Hopefully, in college, I can marry the two together.”
Isaac Harlem
Isaac has learned a lot while in the School of Environmental Leadership. He believes that his growth in communication skills has helped him to work with community partners, in group projects, as well as customer service in a job he held outside of the SEL. Isaac has learned how to problem solve, give an effective presentation, and practice all of the skills he has learned throughout SEL in his internship at the San Rafael Airport.
“I’ve grown in a lot of ways starting off with the 4 C’s, the basis for the program: critical thinking, collaboration, communication, and creativity. I really learned how to utilize these, especially communication. I’ve really learned how to talk to people in power and even just peers. I’ve always been pretty adamant about standing up for myself but in the program I’ve learned how to advocate more effectively — especially with people in authority — and how to advocate in a respectful manner. That was a big learning process for me. It was really cool to see the difference that a group of freshman could make… We petitioned the school district, got close to 500 signatures, presented at their board meeting, and they eventually switched to the [energy] plan which now saves an estimated around 450,00 pounds of CO2 emissions per year. That was super cool and rewarding.”
Rebecca Meshel
In the School of Environmental Leadership, Rebecca has learned many skills that she can apply to real life. She feels that she has grown in ways that will help her in the future. She has learned how to better communicate, prepare and present presentations, and learned to work well with her SEL family.
“I learned how to present, how to work with others, and actual, real-world things. I feel like I’ve grown as a student because I’ve gotten those opportunities. In the SEL, we have an internship senior year and a business junior year, and it just gives you all of these tools and preparation. I definitely feel prepared to go into college and to go into job interviews and stuff like that later in life. And I’m just extremely grateful for that. Moving onto college, I definitely will bring my leadership roles.”