Over 50 students from Oneida Herkimer Madison BOCES presented projects on everything from solar energy and deforestation to ocean pollution and energy efficiency. The students spent the last several months working on the presentations. Oneida Herkimer Madison BOCES P-Tech Teacher Tiffany Piatkowski says the students get more than a sense of accomplishment when the summit is over.

“Our students are our future. So, it’s really important that they learn about ways that they can protect the environment moving forward.”

Piatkowski also said students learn more than environmental conservation and energy efficiency.

“They learn about how to collaborate with each other. How to do research. How to write vision statements. How to put together presentations. So, those are skills they can use anywhere.”

Sophie Tan a Project Leader from the Alliance to Save Energy spoke about teaching energy efficiency at an early age.

“Placing that importance on STEM, energy efficiency is super important especially at this age because they can take that away once they move on to college or in their real everyday lives.”

The New York Power Authority sponsors the event with long-term hopes of getting some of these kids on an environmental career path. NYPA Environmental Justice Manager Matthew Caruso talked about their goals. 

“So, it’s for us really trying to hope that we can spark an interest for them at a young age so that by the time they’re looking for degrees when they’re graduating college or getting a master’s degree and looking for their first jobs, they’re filling that pipeline of workers that are going to be essential.”

Westmoreland High School 9^th Grader Natalie Drummond is planning on a career in Nuclear Physics with the hopes of developing new ways to protect the environment.

“We as humans slowly evolved from just people using energy through fire, and now we’re doing nuclear, we’re doing hydro, we’re using the wind. We are using how to use what the earth gives us. Sometimes it is definitely misused which can affect the environment and I think we as a society need to learn that delicate balance.”