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| Charlotte Biren and Jenna Perelman BIKE IT! STUDENTS THINKING GLOBALLY, ACTING LOCALLY |
Charlotte Biren and Jenna Perelman, Santa Monica High School seniors and co- presidents of the Samohi Solar Alliance (SSA), have been thinking about the natural environment and preparing to be environmental stewards since their elementary school days. They shine with confidence in their understanding of what needs to be done to create environmental sustainability and a commitment to get the job done right.
“We get huge support from the other students at Samohi,” said Biren. Listening to Biren and Perelman, it seems the students now at Samohi have learned they need to be stewards of the environment and are preparing themselves to do just that.
As co-presidents of SSA, Biren and Perelman were lead organizers in this year’s Bike It Day. SSA started Bike It Day four years ago to give students a way to help reduce Santa Monica’s carbon footprint. On Bike It Day students of the Santa Monica School District bike, walk, skateboard or take the bus to school.
The first Bike It Day had fewer than 100 participants, all at the high school. On June 1, 2011, Bike It Day this year, 3,300 students, from Santa Monica High School, Lincoln Middle School, John Adams Middle School, Santa Monica Alternative School, Edison, Franklin, Grant, McKinley, Muir, Pt. Dume, Rogers, Roosevelt and Juan Cabrillo, participated, and 700 of those students biked to school.
“When kids participate in Bike it Day they realize it’s easy and many kids start biking regularly,” said Perelman. “Now more than 120 students bike to Samohi and we need more bike racks for daily use.”
“The event has proved to be extremely beneficial to our community, bringing together all the schools, parents, students, administration, and local businesses in an effort to combat global warming, one bike at a time,” said Richard McKinnon, a parent of a Samohi student, an avid cyclist, and Chair of Bike It Day.
“Bike It! Day has really become a citywide event, with the city helping out by putting up road arrangements and signs, and providing staff to control traffic. The Santa Monica Police Department will be out — both on cars on bikes — to keep students safe,” said McKinnon.
The Samohi Solar Alliance started in 2004 with the idea that putting solar panels on Drake pool would be good for the environment and save almost $30,000 per year for the School District. The student members of SSA got to work, got help from parents and PTAs and community members, raised money and brought solar heat to Drake pool. SSA’s next big project was Bike It Day.
Both Biren and Perelman went all the way through the Santa Monica School system. Both give credit to their elementary school and junior high school teachers who took them to the beach. By the time they got to Junior High they were taking school trips to Catalina and Yosemite to learn about ecosystems. They measured trash on the beach, counted bird populations, and learned to gather the facts and make decisions based on science.
Thinking about her future Biren said, “I’ve studied ballet since I was 5 and I love dance. I play the viola in the Samohi orchestra and I teach viola and I’ve tutored at the SM Library since I was in 6th grade. I want to continue with these activities all my life. But I am also in love with the natural sciences. I am a science-oriented person. This summer I will be a volunteer intern at UCLA in a molecular biology and chemistry lab.
“I follow the work of scientists such as Shai Agassi who is using science and business power to achieve greatness in future alternative energy. I went to hear Robert Kennedy Jr. speak about mining in the southern part of the U.S. and what that has done to the environment, the economy and people’s lives. It makes me even more determined to use science to do good things.”
Perelman, who wears vintage clothes because “it’s better for the environment and I love them,” said, “I started biking to school in the 8th grade on the days I didn’t have to lug my alto sax with me. Now I bike almost every day. Perelman volunteers with the Jewish Big Sisters and has a ‘little sister’ she mentors. This summer she will be a counselor in training at the Jameson Ranch Camp for part of the summer and an intern in a photography studio for the other part. She plans on a gap year between high school and college and hopes to travel to Machu Picchu before going to college where she will study environmental law.
“I think a lot about going into politics,” said Perelman. “I love talking to people and I love public speaking, but then again, I’m 16 and I don’t know what’s going to happen, so things could change.”
Now in a place of honor in their respective homes are Environmental Youth Awards, which they received for their leadership in SSA. The awards are for “outstanding achievement in environmental stewardship” and are signed, “Barak Obama, The White House, Washington D.C.”
I worry about water quality, air quality, our carbon footprint, global warming, sustainable cities, sustainable agriculture. I worry that world governments are chasing the arguments of the last century instead of protecting our collective future. I worry that many countries are depriving themselves of the possible contributions to society of half their populations by denying women the right to participate fully in public life.
But after meeting Charlotte and Jenna, I worry less.
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