Youth Policy Summit Blog

Why YPS? Part Tres

2012-02-22T05:47:00.000-08:00

Problem Solving and Critical Thinking Skills: What if we told you high schools students have all the answers? Attend a Youth Policy Summit final presentation, and you’ll have a tough time saying otherwise.

At Youth Policy Summit, students learn to understand complex problems from multiple viewpoints, and to consider future concerns and issues that will arise. They explore the social, technical, environmental, education & workforce, political, legal and economic sides of issues (the STEEPLE analysis), and then apply this knowledge to come up with innovative solutions for the future.

From our country’s energy portfolio to the future of hydrofracking, YPS students have the answers. The solutions they come up with are well thought out, supported by evidence, and truly their own. And the skills they develop and apply at YPS are not only useful during the Summit week, but can be applied to other issues that citizens, businesses, nonprofits and government agencies grapple with on a daily basis.

Why YPS? Part Deux

2012-02-16T10:05:00.000-08:00

Collaborate, Mediate, Negotiate! Riddle me this: where can you find Exxon Mobil,Greenpeace, the Environmental Protection Agency and Coal Power USAholding hands and singing a rousing rendition of “Why can’t we befriends”? Yeah, we haven't seen it either. But take away the singing and hand-holding and youhave a multi-stakeholder dialogue that has the potential to make positive,lasting change!

Youth Policy Summit is the onlyprogram of its kind that engages students in a mediation process that includesrepresentatives from diverse stakeholder groups. Participants step intothe shoes of industry, government and advocacy groups and spend the weekworking together to understand underlying common interests and collaborating tofind a solution that everyone can agree with. YPS students learn to identifyand value diverse perspectives. They are leaders with the crucial ability tolisten, understand and mediate conflict within a group so that a feasible,lasting solution can be found.

YPS Sonnet- Show me the LOVE!

2012-02-14T07:50:00.000-08:00

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

I love thy dorms and tasty dining hall food,

Late-night Harry Potter viewing par-tay

And meeting my roommate, a really cool dude.

I love thy tales of the wee desert tortoise

And the stakeholders who came to the table

With a common interest and purpose

To come to consensus, if they are able.

I love thy exciting mediation sessions

Where we can haggle and negotiate

All the while keeping in mind the lessons

To find a solution that’s really top-rate.

I love thee so much I will tell all my friends

Youth Policy Summit is what I recommends!

Why YPS? Part I

2012-02-07T08:47:00.000-08:00

Policy Analysis and Research Skills: The Youth Policy Summitchallenges students to examine an important public policy issue in depth. Starting in the spring semester of theirjunior or senior year of high school, participants undertake a comprehensiveresearch project about the Summit topic- water resources, urban sustainability,or energy issues- to understand the basics and meet the players involved.

Throughout the Summit week participants build on this baseof knowledge through research, group discussion and a morning spentinterviewing experts in the field. Oncestudents feel that they have a strong understanding of the public policy issue,YPS facilitators guide them through a mediation process that requiresparticipants to not only apply what they have learned, but to find creativesolutions based on their research. YPSparticipants are gaining practical research skills and applying them to solve atough problem, making learning fun, interactive and rewarding!

Exciting Opportunity for YPS Alumni!

2012-02-06T09:17:00.000-08:00

Calling all YPS alums who are currently working on an undergraduate degree- This is a fantastic opportunity to build on what you learned at YPS, gain valuable hands-on experience and spend a week in one of the most beautiful places in the West- Jackson, WY!

The Rocky Mountain Sustainability and Science Network Summer Academy is a one-week NSF funded program providing intensive training to students prior to either entering internships or jobs on public lands, or embarking on summer research projects related to environmental science, climate change, or sustainability.

Instructors include university professors as well as leaders from government agencies and non-profit organizations. The format will include field lectures, discussions, field applications, and social networking. Students who complete the program requirements will receive a Certificate in Global Leadership and Sustainability.
To be eligible, students must be full-time, degree-seeking undergraduates with career interests related to natural or cultural resource management, environmental science, or management of public lands.

TO learn more or to apply, click HERE to visit the RMSSN Academy Website, or go to http://rmssnacademy.colostate.edu/

Alumni Video Contest - Win awesome prizes!

2012-01-26T10:03:00.000-08:00

In case you haven't heard, YPS has a new video! Featuring 2010 and 2011 alumni Avery, David, Elaine & Megan, it is pretttttyyyy awesome (we sure think so) Check out the video here:

Youth Policy Summit: An Alumni Perspective

We challenge you to create your own YPS video and enter the Alumni Video Contest to win great prizes!

Possible topics include: your YPS experience; what you learned; your policy recommendations; presentations or action projects you've done since YPS; why others should consider attending a program.

Official Rules:

Submissions must be under 2 minutes long, and will be accepted until March 15, 2012.
Videos must focus on your YPS experience, and creativity is encouraged! Interview a friend or teacher who attended the program with you, provide your own voice-over, sing a song about YPS, act out a skit...have fun!
Please remember that all videos must contain appropriate images and language. Your video must be your own work, and must not infringe the copyright, trademark, privacy, publicity, or other personal or proprietary rights of any person or entity. If your video does not comply with these rules, your submission will be eliminated.

How to Enter:

Upload your video to YouTube.
Send an email to Jessye (jcrothstein@keystone.org) with your name; the name of your video project; a link to your video and the following statement: "All persons appearing in the video have given permission to be videotaped and for the video to be publicly displayed on YouTube."
We will post your video to the contest on YouTube.
Share your video link with friends! The video with the most likes on March 15 will win the Peoples Choice Award - a $100 gift card to Amazon!
YPS staff will pick a second winner based on video originality and content. The winner of the YPS Choice Award will win an iPod shuffle!
Both winners' videos will be featured on the YPS website.

The sooner we get your submission, the sooner you can start getting votes!!

Youth Policy Summit Video Release Party!

2012-01-25T13:00:00.000-08:00

By video release party, we mean virtual celebration! All the A-list celebs will be there...

We are so excited about the first ever YPS official video! It features clips from a presentation that 4 of our alumni did at the NCSSSMST Conference this fall in Austin, TX. They are incredibly well spoken, and do a great job of describing the YPS experience. We hope this video will be a nice snippet for alumni to remember their time at YPS and helpful for perspective students to get a better sense of the program. Share it on Facebook, like it on YouTube, watch it every day, and give major props to Avery, David, Elaine & Megan for making it happen!

YPS Welcomes Alumni Ambassadors!

2012-01-10T10:19:00.000-08:00

Happy 2012! It's a new year, with new exciting developments happening at The Keystone Center. The list of 2012 Youth Policy Summit programs is finalized and on the website - now we just have to find 240 amazing high school students up to the task of solving our nation's biggest problems. No big deal...

We are constantly blabbing about our alumni and how amazing they are, but only because it is entirely true. As we embark on a new recruitment season, we realized that no one is more familiar with the programs, better equipped to answer questions from students, or tapped into high school networks than our brilliant alums. We hope alumni from 2004 through 2011 will join our efforts to promote YPS and get motivated, diverse peers and friends involved in 2012 programs. And best of all, their hard work will be rewarded with a new title to put on a resume or just discuss at family dinners ("You didn't know I am an ambassador?!"): Alumni Ambassador. Check out the brand new Alumni Ambassador page on the website, and contact us to join today!

USGBC Blog Highlights YPS Alumni!

2011-11-07T13:39:00.000-08:00

Last week, 8 students from the 2011 National YPS program came to DC to present their policy recommendations to agencies across DC. Write-up coming soon!!

In the meantime, check out the USGBC blog entry on the students' prensentation. We are so proud of their hard work!!

http://centerforgreenschools.org/utility-nav/blog/11-11-07/National_Youth_Policy_Summit_Students_Present_Energy-Usage_Goals.aspx

LASA Students Present about YPS at NCSSSMST Conference!

2011-11-07T06:38:00.000-08:00

HUGE GIANT SHOUT OUT to YPS alums Megan Mattson, David Comer, Elaine Hung and Avery Garza for helping us out with a YPS presentation at the NCSSSMST Conference in Austin, Texas! They did an incredible job and really helped us demonstrate why YPS is so great (and how awesome our students are). We are working on editing a video of them (coming soon!) but in the meantime here are a few photos. We are pretty sure if they did every presentation for us, we would be overwhelmed with funding and students!

The LASA Liberator Features YPS!

2011-11-04T13:48:00.000-07:00

Special thanks to YPS alum Megan Mattson for sending along the following article on YPS from her school newspaper! LASA student Ashley Long wrote about her peers who attended the 2011 National YPS program.

Keystone Youth Policy Summit

Sitting in a room at the Keystone Science School, LASA seniors Elaine Hung, Avery Garza, Cameron Thum and Megan Mattson participate in an environmental policy deliberation. In June the students participated in a youth policy summit regarding energy innovation and policy.

“The objective of the summit was to learn about energy policy,” Hung said. “We had to not only learn about it, but also discuss and debate different policy recommendations. The topic was energy innovation, so the problem posed was basically what can we do to improve the energy in the US in the next 50 years, and set goals for that.”

During the summit, the students were required to design and debate a policy that incorporated a multitude of ideas and perspectives. Some positions to consider in making their plans included government and environmental agencies, stakeholders, oil companies as well as private business owners. Garza said that the students went through a lot of mediation training to be able to compromise with all of the different perspectives.

“I learned so much during the summit,” Garza said. “Not only do I have a basic understanding of many more energy sources that can and are being used, I feel like I came from the summit with a greater understanding of how environmental policy actually works. I definitely realized how exactly I can see an issue from other points of view in order to make the best possible decision for everyone involved.”

The creation of the final policies involved many steps. After making final policies, the students went over small details and redrafted the policies in small groups. Later, these new drafts were discussed and aspects of the policies were deliberated. Although it was a long process, Thum said that all of their hard work paid off.

“After spending a week drafting and debating and revising our final policy recommendation, it felt like a huge weight was relieved when we finally submitted it,” Thum said. “There was a lot of pressure to complete the recommendation in those last days, but getting to look over all of our work later was such a great reward."

The purpose of the summit was not to create ideas that will only work in theory, but to provide reasonable suggestions that can benefit the community. There are steps that each community can take to improve energy conditions, which Avery Garza said she hopes will happen at LBJ.

“One of the last things we talked about in Colorado was what we were all planning to do in terms of taking action in the community,” Garza said. “I think it did heighten my awareness of environmental issues at a policy level and has pushed me to see what all needs to happen in order for real change to occur.”

All four students are current members of the LASA Environmental Club. They said they hope the club focuses on making changes that they discussed in the summit.

“Hopefully we’ll try to promote renewable energy and more energy-efficient appliances. Currently, we are trying to work on sustainability, so we have the garden beds by the tennis courts and compost as well.”

Alabama YPS alumni attend IEIA Forum!

2011-10-20T07:38:00.000-07:00

The participants in a 2011 Youth Policy Summit in Birmingham, AL were invited to attend the Interfaith Environmental Initiative of AL’s fall conference held at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens on October 13. At the summit we discussed various issues to do with water management and other related topics. One of the main focuses of the meeting was how we could be more effective users of existing resources, and this relates back to what we talked about during the week long summit last summer. In attendance at the IEIA were 3 students from Homewood High School, 3 students from Indian Springs School, and 1 student from Hoover High School. At the conference two of the students from Indian Springs School presented an overview of what we all did at the Youth Policy Summit, and what we learned about reaching consensus.

Special thanks for Quinn Balazs for sending in the above update, and Eleanor DelBene for generously involving our students in this fantastic event. For more information on the Forum and the Interfaith Environmental Initiative of Alabama (a YPS partner!), please visit http://www.interfaithenvironmental.org/?page_id=342 .

Everything sounds better when you sing it!

2011-10-05T11:57:00.001-07:00

Who doesn't like a song to brighten their day? We were inspired by Mr. Edmonds - a science teacher who knows how to get his students listening (and singing)! Watch his Energy Song and see if you are inspired...we would LOVE a YPS song (please please please)!!!

YPS Blog has changed sites, yet remains awesome

2011-10-04T13:21:00.000-07:00

We know, we know. It was only last spring that we created the YPS Blog, and we are already moving it?! Sorry for the confusion, issues and trouble we are causing. This move will be our last (we promise), and will make our blog more user friendly!

Help us make our blog the best it can be by submitting posts, commenting on articles and subscribing to our feed! You can submit any blog posts you would like to see featured to jcrothstein@keystone.org.

Thanks for sticking with us through this transition!

2011 YPS at Montclair State, NJ!! (8/11/2011)

2011-10-04T13:09:00.000-07:00

Check out this awesome video that was put together by some participants and chaperones from our YPS on Water Resources in the Northeast at Montclair State University!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJ3V7uRp1uY

YPS Man loads up on carbs (7/19/2011)

2011-10-04T13:07:00.001-07:00

After a relaxing weekend, YPS Man made another stop on his journey - this time to visit the land of sliced bread! As those of you who have participated in YPS now know, sandwiches are an integral part of the YPS experience, so YPS Man was, understandably, excited. So exited, in fact, that he hasn't been seen since he ate a loaf of bread and called it a day. If you've had any YPS Man sightings, submit them (where you saw him, photos, etc). to the Blog!

YPS Man sees a bit of history (7/14/2011)

2011-10-04T13:05:00.000-07:00

After hugging Nigel goodbye, YPS man moved on to a new state, where he soaked in the pool before soaking up some history! Here he is enjoying the hotel pool with Jeremy's kids!

After a refreshing swim, he was back on the road to the local attraction: Jesse James' place of death. Where did YPS Man go to see the bullet hole of the bullet that killed Jesse James? Special bonus question: who shot Jesse James?

YPS Man Travels: Stop 2 (7/13/2011)

2011-10-04T13:00:00.000-07:00

YPS Man has been busy in the last day! He made a furry friend (Nigel) and visited a museum dedicated to rollerskating!
Today's YPS Man trivia: What type of animal is Nigel?

Where is the National Roller Skating Museum located?

Follow YPS Man on His Journey East! (7/12/2011)

2011-10-04T12:42:00.000-07:00

Some of you may have known that Jeremy, Director of Keystone's Center for Education, drove from Keystone, CO to Washington DC with his family last week. They brought a UHaul with all of their possessions, as well as a special passenger to share the journey with: YPS MAN! Follow him as he makes his way across the country, looking fresh to death. First stop: Overland Trails Museum. Can you name the city and state?

UPDATE: Indi found him - Sterling, Colorado!

Is Nuclear Power Really the Solution? (6/7/2011)

2011-10-04T12:37:00.000-07:00

By: Alexis

So when I first began my research on nuclear power I first thought to myself…"Mmm, How exactly does that work again?” Shortly after, I did what any other great thinker would do…I went to youtube! :) After jogging my memory I decided to view a couple of the other videos posted. One video that I came across really caught my attention. In the video two polar bears are casually fishing and giving their take on what causes global warming. Take a look for yourself:

So after watching the video I did some more research and found out that nuclear power is being looked upon as a way to reduce global warming and the amount of air pollution being omitted. I then thought to myself “Yay!...so the polar bears are safe now…right?” Well…maybe not. After doing some more research I came across an article that explained why nuclear power may not be the answer many people are searching for. As many people know, the process of creating nuclear power produces radioactive waste. And many people also know that fossil fuels produce pollution, but did you know that as nuclear power omits tons of thermal pollution? Once the energy is released from nuclear power, which is produced from uranium, it escapes into the air, ground, water, etc. resulting in global warming.
After reading that tidbit I realized how much this related to my personal steeple, education and workforce development. I also realized how much media can impact the way people believe things without pointing out all the facts…like this political video for example. In this video, that aired this year, a women is talking about the benefit nuclear power has in regards of providing unpolluted air.

So I feel that the real message of the first video posted was that the only way to fix major problems, such as global warming and air pollution, is to really take into consideration all the facts and determine what’s best for everyone. Maybe it’s time to invest more time in renewable resources. What do you guys think?

National YPS: Nuclear and Three Mile Island (6/5/2011)

2011-10-04T12:32:00.001-07:00

By: Melanie

So, I've never blogged before, and with our summit in just a week I'm a little late at it too. But better late than never they say. My topic is about Nuclear Power, and my personal steeple assignment is Technical, and my stakeholder is Exelon Corporation, which owns the largest nuclear fleet in the nation, and the third largest in the world. Here recently I've been really investigating my stakeholder, so this post is mainly about my discovery I made about them today. Exelon seems like the perfect company. They meet all safety standards, they've won tons of awards, they offer scholarships and care about the environment (or at least say they do). However, when I was looking at their fleet of nuclear power plants, the name of popped out. They are the proud owner of Three Mile Island. However, they did not own the facility at the time of it's nuclear "accident". Despite the fact they aren't responsible for a major nuclear event, they own a piece of it. Which I found really facinating. In the face of Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disastor, Exelon reassures us that ALL of their plants are safe from natural disastors, and do everything they can to dispose of material safely, and carry out their daily activities safely. So, hopefully the history they now own will not repeat itself.

Renewable Energy - Brilliant! (5/18/2011)

2011-10-04T12:21:00.000-07:00

Transportation: Public, Private, Commercial and Industrial (5/18/2011)

2011-10-04T12:16:00.000-07:00

By: Arturo Munoz, California Academy of Math and Science

Transportation: One of the most crucial aspects of society due to the need to get to places conveniently, efficiently, and of course, on time. My name is Arturo Munoz and I have decided to take on the challenge of investigating the Transportation II research topic.

This topic involves energy solutions regarding transportation methods that are, as far as I know, used globally. These transportation methods can range from large ships that carry large amounts of exports and imports internationally to a typical Metro bus that carries human passengers to several pre-designated destinations. The concepts behind all of these machines has been advancing forward continuously over the years and I have been able to witness that change in my everyday life in their physical forms. Seeing how environmentally efficient they are, I could only imagine how much more we could do to make even more technological breakthroughs to help, for instance, reduce CO₂ emissions in our country.

To begin with, I have been an avid Metro bus commuter for years now and I have to say that it feels a lot better than traveling in a car. First of all, you have to think of riding the Metro in this way: Imagine every single family and individual in the bus or metro rail cars owned one car. For the sake of the example, let’s say there are 50 families of two riding the metro meaning that there are a total of 100 people on the metro. There would be 50 cars on the street releasing a large amount of CO₂ into the atmosphere as opposed to the smaller amount of electricity used to power the rails or less gasoline to power a metro bus that carries about 30 people. We can definitely improve these technologies to make them even more efficient. We can improve public transportation greatly in design or in energy efficiency and I would definitely like to look more into this because it could be possible that one day, the majority of the public would be riding in public transportation due to the rising price of oil. This would definitely call for improvements to our public transportation system and working on it now would have the system ready for the possible influx of patrons.

Also, public transportation isn’t the only situation that can be improved. Private transportation is another matter that has been improving over the past few years when customers purchase automobiles. More fuel-efficient vehicles have been introduced lately and as they become more available, more and more people switch to hybrids or smaller cars that can achieve more miles per gallon. The price of oil has been slowly rising and the thought of spending $80 or more a week has become an extremely unpopular idea for most everyday drivers. The costs for refilling a vehicle’s tank stacks up to a large amount over time and unless people have large amounts of money, they won’t wait until gasoline is $10 per gallon to switch to a more fuel efficient car. I would like to see if companies would be willing to spend more money to develop fuel-efficient cars. The market is calling for these changes in our nation and I’m sure that the companies that have already produced a hybrid vehicle have seen how well they perform and the positive feedback from the people who can afford a hybrid.

Lastly, commercial transportation and industrial transportation play a very important role in our product-hungry society. We want products to be available at stores at moment’s notice whether we want to purchase them or not. However, to have these products at the store shelves we must consider the method of transporting these products to their designated stores. This is where industrial and commercial transportation come into play. Commercial transportation can include small vans to transport small goods and/or packages, downscaled semi-trucks to transport large amounts of goods throughout North America, and busses and taxis are also considered commercial transportation. Commercial transportation vehicles are similar to public transportation-type vehicles in terms of transporting people with buses and taxi cabs. Commercial vans and downscaled semi-trucks are also used for transporting goods. Industrial transportation vehicles can include full-sized semi trucks, cargo trains, and cargo ships. Industrial transportation is usually used for very large amounts of international goods. I know how often these methods of transportation are used and I would hope to look into possible ways of making these methods more efficient. These goods have to travel across the country at times and who knows how much air pollution is left in the wake of a full-sized semi-truck. It is possible to find alternatives for transporting all of these goods. Nothing is impossible and with time and research, we can possibly work our way to it.

I don’t expect to “build Rome in a day,” but I plan on being very committed to this topic because I believe that this research could truly make a difference in the future if implemented correctly. I believe the transportation systems around the country could be improved and I’d like to be one of the people to contribute to that cause. Ultimately, formulating these ideas with a group of students whom I have never met nor shared ideas with could provide some very valuable insight into the goal of this topic.

Welcome to the New YPS Blog (5/13/2011)

2011-10-04T12:03:00.000-07:00

YPS is catching up with the times and getting down with technology! Not only did we revamp our Facebook page this winter, but this spring we are celebrating the start of our new YPS Blog! We invite all YPS alumni, staff, partners, future students, teachers and friends to help make our blog a success by posting stories, pictures, videos, updates, ideas, projects, accomplishments, related events and more, and keeping up with and commenting on others' entries. As you all know, YPS is about making youth voices heard, and this blog is another opportunity to share your ideas with others! Help us take the leap into the blogosphere, and post away!