New Haven Independent

The students hang out after school with Gameliel Moses, who runs a chapter there of Solar Youth, an environmental program for kids. They went thorugh the program’s nine-step process of identifying a problem in their community, then doing something about it. (They call this a CSAP, or “Community Service Action Project.”)

The students involved are Evelyn Perez, Marlere Gonzalez, Diana Laura De la Rosa Carreto, Alaya Yvette Morris Kimbrough, Moeneya Quanise Armond, and Jody-Ann Purcell. They decided that all the trash they saw around the ground of Hill Central was a big problem, a problem they could address. Click on the play arrow to watch them describe how they put together their CSAP, and why.

After clearing the trash, they encouraged other students to join them in keeping the school clean. A visit to the school the other day showed results: the grounds remained clean.

Meanwhile, the students were hovered over computers, where, as the next part of their Solar Youth project, they’re writing an article about their experience, with the hope of inspiring others to keep their community clean. They also figured out how to retrieve Web videos of the Coliseum’s implosion — no small feat given the understandable blocking of many video sites by the school.