Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard (CA-34) congratulates a local teacher and two of his students from California Academy for Liberal Studies High School (CALS) in Downtown, Los Angeles, for their participation in a national youth summit on the global climate crisis. At the Power Shift 2007 conference from November 2-5 in Maryland, CALS science teacher Andrew Stephens (pictured right) and his two students, Jaclyn Lopez (second right) and Charles Ghiotto (on left), both of Cypress Park in Northeast Los Angeles, presented their success story about cleaning up their school and neighborhood. They were among nearly five thousand conference attendees made up of students from throughout the country. The school’s cleanup effort, which started in September of 2006, was organized by a group of dedicated students and Mr. Stephens, who founded the Mean Green Team.  The team has been involved in many projects tallying more than 600 volunteer hours.  One of those projects, La Gran Limpieza, is one of the largest urban river clean ups in the country with 2,000 volunteers removing more than 30 tons of litter from the Los Angeles River.  In addition, the Mean Green Team last year presented results of an indoor air quality assessment of their school to the school board, resulting in direct actions to improving their air quality.  In recognition of Mr. Stephens’ and the club members’ efforts, Earth Day Network – an environmental advocacy organization - is sponsoring his work through the National Civic Education Project, a grant for teachers to improve civic and environmental education in their schools. 
 

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