2008 Environmental Leadership Program in Chengdu, China
By Brian Marshall '10 and Yupu Zhao '10
Our project, in the capital of Sichuan Province, China, gathered together student leaders from the top universities in the region for a weeklong, all inclusive, interactive and educational experience about environmental issues both local and global.
The goals of our Environmental Leadership Program (ELP) were to raise environmental awareness among China's next generation of leaders, share strategies about how individuals can get involved in environmental protection, discuss some of China's most controversial and pressing environmental issues, and present the participants some leadership and team- building skills so that they will be able to more effectively organize and implement their own environmental projects on their own campuses.
China is currently struggling with some of the most severe environmental challenges any country has ever faced. Water pollution threatens drinking water for millions, air pollution causes asthma and myriad other respiratory illnesses, habitat destruction has contributed to a biodiversity crisis, and China has recently surpassed the USA as the largest emitter of CO2 - the primary greenhouse gas contributing to anthropogenic climate change.
At first, the scale of these challenges can make them seem insurmountable, but by providing the ELP participants with the skills they need to educate their peers on these issues, our impact of this program is much greater than the initial week's events. By exposing participants to an international perspective on environmental issues, we were able to build a bridge between the United States and China while introducing the next generation to issues that will be critical to the health of our communities and our planet.
Dr. Sun Yat-Sen, founder of modern China, once said "a little spark may kindle a great fire." Through the Environmental Leadership Program, we have created a small spark by providing 20 participants with the environmental knowledge, leadership expertise, and commitment to living greener, more sustainable lives. 
We recruited 20 outstanding student leaders from more than 200 applications from 12 universities. We selected the top candidates based on their applications, evaluating them on the basis of demonstrated leadership, interest in environmental protection, and English language ability.
The next stage of ELP involved our preparatory work: putting together presentations, creating a binder full of reading material and information for all of the participants, consulting with Franklin & Marshall Professors Dr. James Stick and Dr. Richard Pepino for effective teaching techniques, lining up field trips and guest speakers for the participants, booking all the accommodations, and developing interactive leadership workshops based on our personal experiences in our student environmental activist organization at F&M.
On August 10th our weeklong program began at the very hospitable foreign exchange hotel and conference center at Chengdu Sport University. A typical day of the ELP featured a presentation about an environmental topic (five topics included air quality, water quality, climate change, energy, and conservation) in the morning, a field trip or guest speaker in the afternoon, and a movie or workshop and discussion in the evening. We designed the entire week such that everything was based on interaction between the participants and thus developed a peer-to-peer relationship with the students, creating an environment more conducive to free exchange of ideas.
Guest speakers included the Assistant Director of the Center for Environmental Education of Chengdu and a representative from the Chengdu branch of "Roots & Shoots", an International NGO established by the Jane Goodall Institute.
Two things we emphasized heavily throughout the program were leadership and team building skills. Although environmental education is a worthy end in itself, if participants lack the ability to present what they learned effectively or fail to galvanize support for their own environmental projects then the impact of our program will be severely limited.
We presented speech and communication techniques, strategies for running effective meetings, discussed the qualities of a great leader, and organized team building exercises like the "human knot." In order to encourage participation we had groups from each university design a proposal to make their university campus more environmentally friendly and then had different groups prepare a twenty minute presentation about an environmental topic as an opportunity for them to practice their presentation skills and further their own environmental knowledge. In addition, in order to provide a comprehensive "ELP Experience" for the participants, we included in our program entertaining and recreational activities. On the last evening of the program we hosted a talent show that turned into a big hit and involved the entire group.
Initially, we were very nervous about whether this program would truly be successful. As the program began to unfold, however, we were delighted with how excited and engaged the participants were. We had many excellent discussions especially regarding how individuals can get involved with environmental protection and a very lively debate about China's role in combating climate change, which many students continued on their own during lunch.
As the week progressed we got to know each other better through different games and activities, establishing personal relationships that will last well beyond the one week in August. One participant told us she was so ecstatic to be a part of the program because as an industrial engineering major she never had the opportunity to really learn about environmental protection.
Our guiding philosophy for this Project for Peace is that every individual can make a difference. Through our program we were able to reach out to twenty participants to begin the conversation; however, we would consider the project a failure if that were the extent of our impact. Now, armed with the knowledge and skills from our program, those involved are eager to set up their own environmental programs at their respective universities. Their ideas include launching newspaper and battery recycling collection sites, hosting an environmental film festival, and giving student presentations in highly visible places around campus.
At the completion of the program, several students drafted a detailed proposal to implement these ideas, addressing all the necessary details such as sources of funding, advertising, site selection, and strategies for obtaining administration assistance. In order to encourage the group to highly connected, we set up a blog and a group on the Chinese instant message software QQ to facilitate communication between these different universities and Franklin & Marshall.
Climate scientists often talk about positive feedback loops in the environment that further accelerate the greenhouse effect. These are processes which, once begun, continue to build momentum on their own like a snowball rolling down the mountain. We like to think we have created a positive feedback loop with the Environmental Leadership Program by empowering students to educate others about the importance of environmental protection. China's environmental problems will not be solved over night, but if we can start reaching the next generation about the importance of curbing pollution, protecting biodiversity, and sustainable development, there is always hope that we can create a greener future from the bottom up, not just in China but globally.
We can attest that this opportunity, made possible by the Kathryn Davis Foundation, has given us a new sense of individual possibility and responsibility and solidified in each of us a lifelong commitment to pursuing peace.
Brian Marshall '10, is a joint Public Policy major from Utah, USA
Yupu Zhao '10, is an Environmental Science major from Chengdu, China
