"Be a Better Earthling" is Samo's latest endeavor to improve our environment
By Gwen Warren, Staff Writer
Be a Better Earthling is a three-part seminar that educates students at Samo on how to be environmentally involved in their community. The webinars, hosted by Lilly Chertock (‘21), were held during flex-time on three consecutive Thursdays in October. Each session respectively discussed the relation the environment has to political activism, racial justice and the food industry.
Chertock has been participating in organizations such as Junior State of America (JSA), where she holds the governor position for Samo, and Climate Action of Santa Monica, an organization that advocates climate, ever since she began to grow more environmentally conscious in the 9th grade. Chertock’s responsibilities within these roles led her to organize the seminar in hopes of spreading awareness about the environment within the Samo community.
“They told [Climate Action of Santa Monica] everyone was going to have a virtual project and I wanted to do something to educate my community. I had to get in contact with the administration to get permission to do it as a feature flex-time, so the school can host it and advertise it,” Chertock said.
With support from Samo’s administration, Chertock was able to increases student involvement in the seminars by giving students extra credit for attending the flex-times. This incentive resulted in increased awareness about the importance of environmental sustainability in groups of students who otherwise may not have attended the flextime presentations.
“It is better to have an audience that wouldn’t necessarily have gone out of their own accord. Likely the people who don't know much about the topic as people who are already interested and want to learn more, so we got an audience of people to where this is all new to them. That was the goal: to influence others,” Chertock said.
Chertock presented the three seminars, alongside Mariam Jallow. Jallow attends International School of Beaverton in Oregon. Jallow is also a Pacific Northwest JSA governor as well as the US Youth Climate Strike Chief of Staff.
Chertock successfully educated the Samo community on countless topics surrounding the climate. Many students gained knowledge on the topics she presented and asked questions to further their understanding. Chertock is hopeful that the seminars will appear again next semester.
Featured art by Leslie Garcia, Art Editor