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  • Home
  • About
    • Who We Are >
      • Campus Affiliates
      • Allies + Networks
      • Mission and Strategy
      • Our History
    • Media >
      • The Young Kentuckian Blog
      • Power to the People Podcast
      • Press >
        • Media Coverage
        • Media Resources and Contacts
        • Media Advisories and Releases
    • Contact
  • Get Involved
    • Plug In
    • Campaigns >
      • Stop LG&E's Pipeline
      • Stop Letcher Co Prison
    • Catalyst: Camp 4 Community Organizing
  • Resources
    • Resources
    • Campaign Case Study
    • COVID-19 Mutual Aid
  • Donate

Where We Are From

2/9/2018

1 Comment

 
​By Sadie Lawrence
Where We Are From
By Sadie Lawrence


We are from the dirt
A small seed
That has grown
From the earth
To a magnificent, towering oak

We are from the ashes
A fiery phoenix
That has risen
From the remains
To emerge burning and powerful

We are from the clouds
A thundering storm
That has formed
From electrical charge
To rain down strength and beauty

We are from the ground
A pounding river
That has washed away doubts
From the bank of our past
To flow clean and clear on the path to the future

​​***


It is my belief that we are all made from the same stuff. We are formed from the stardust leftover from when the universe erupted into existence. And we are all humans. We all want the best for ourselves and our children, our future.
Since I joined KSEC last semester, I have felt increasingly empowered to make my small part of the universe heard. I organized an art gallery last semester revolving around the theme “Problems and Solutions in the Community.” I also helped plan a Determination Rally with the Young Earth Activists Club at my high school advocating against the pulling out of the Paris Climate Agreement. And now I am working with KSEC’s Political Working Group to plan the Rise Up Kentucky Rally on February 12th in Frankfort.

This rally is all about making youth’s voices heard. We may be from fewer years, but that doesn’t mean we don’t care about the looming future. In fact, I’ve heard from many of my peers and from personal experience that the future gives many young people a lot of anxiety. We’re not sure what to do next. We ask which stepping stone will be the most stable and sturdy? What will happen if we choose the wrong one?

When I am unsure about the next step to take, it’s easy to shut down and try to take comfort in knowing someone else could always fill my place. There are always other people with more passion and more knowledge. “It won’t matter what I do anyway. I’m just one person in a world of 7 billion.”

But the thing is, every single person counts. Every single person’s stardust is needed to make up the universe. Without it, the world we live in would be very different. Right now, this generation and those to come are being threatened by a changing climate, air and water pollution, and an economy that extracts our wealth and our health.

For me, KSEC gave me a way to combat that anxiety and gave me actions I can take to address the problems at hand. I have ways to contribute and ways to show people that I am not apathetic about my future. This is one of the goals of the upcoming Rise Up Kentucky Rally: to learn new tactics to resist threats. We are showing that KSEC has enabled youth in the past. That we have empowered young people before, and we are continuing to now. That our fight for the future won’t stop. And that there are ways for our stardust to shine in a darkening world.
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KENTUCKY STUDENTS LEAD THE FIGHT FOR LOCAL FOOD

10/26/2016

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By Nicole Funk, KSEC, University of Kentucky
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PictureUniversity of Kentucky students mix pumpkin muffin batter
On October 12th , 2016, the Kentucky Student Environmental Coalition (KSEC) hosted its first annual Local Food Day of Action.

Universities across the state celebrated the day with events and activities to raise awareness for the importance of local food and to promote local food on campuses.

Students at Northern Kentucky University chalked their campus with messages about the Local Food Day of Action. At Murray State University, students tabled to promote the day, allowing students to learn more about local food. Students also tabled at the University of Louisville to educate others on why local food is beneficial, how the university has progressed in their embrace of local food, and introduced more of the campus to KSEC's organizing work. Visitors were able to fill out a survey about the kind of local food they would like to see on campus. Finally, at the University of Kentucky, students baked pumpkin chocolate chip muffins using local eggs and flour as well as squash and pumpkin grown on UK’s South Farm. The muffins were handed out to students to raise awareness of and appreciation for local food.

These Kentucky-wide activities helped spread KSEC’s message of support for local food. The Day of Action allowed students across the state to find out why food grown and produced in Kentucky is so valuable.

Here’s to hoping this day will inspire students, faculty & staff, and community members to bring more local food to our campuses!

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STUDENTS ACROSS KY TAKE ACTION ON NOVEMBER 20TH!

11/21/2014

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​By Cara Cooper, KSEC Organizer
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Young people across Kentucky know what is at stake if our communities and institutions don’t take sustainability seriously, our future. That is why we are united in the fight to protect our health, our communities, and our planet and it’s why we hosted a statewide day of action on November 20th.

Twelve campuses took action towards campus sustainability, reduce waste, increase energy efficiency and renewable energy, and support the local food economy as a part of the Kentucky Student Environmental Coalition's Sustainability Day of Action. Each student organization chose actions or events that could further their own organizations campus goals while staying united in the message that our campuses must be leaders when it comes to protecting our communities, our natural resources, and our future.

A day of action is just that, one day. But we know what is at stake and we won’t stop until we are sure that our future, our communities, and our planet can thrive. We deserve the same chance to flourish as previous generations without having to choose between the economy and our health, the needs of people now and the needs of people in generations to come. Sustainability is the only option.

One priority of young Kentuckians is the transition to a renewable energy future and protection of our precious air and water resources. Both University of Kentucky's Greenthumb and Eastern Kentucky University's Green Crew took action towards securing commitments from their university administration to creating and implementing a climate action plan to reduce greenhouse gases and move their campuses towards carbon neutrality. At Murray State University MESS collected petitions for their on-going Green Fee campaign to fund sustainable projects and renewable energy installations and Centre College's Centre Environmental Association educated peers and built support for a revolving loan fund to take their college's commitment to sustainability to the next level.

Another priority of Kentucky students is around the  reducing the amount of waste associated with our campuses. Many campuses across the Commonwealth still don't have campus-wide recycling (hard to believe since it’s almost 2015, but it‘s true!) so several schools focused their events on launching recycling campaigns and promoting on campus recycling and education. Campuses involved included Transylvania University's TEAL Organization, Alice Llyod College's Environmental and Outdoor Club, and Kentucky State University's Green Society (KSU is Kentucky's only historically black university AND the only public university in the state without a campus-wide recycling program). University of Louisville's GRASS Organization also participated by promoting their on campus "Free-Store" as a way to encourage reducing waste and reusing clothing and other items, rather than buying new. Berea College’s HEAL organization participated in a clothing drive to promote reusing and to collect much needed items for their local homeless shelter. Dupont Manual High School's Environmental Club also used this day of action to launch a new campaign to ban Styrofoam and to increase the amount of local food available in their cafeteria.
​Events and actions also took place at Morehead State University where their newly revived environmental club Environmental Eagles screened the documentary Dam Nation (Kentucky has dams on many of our waterways at a great detriment to the natural environment), and at Northern Kentucky University.

Beginning with Kentucky's campus communities, KSEC works toward an ecologically sustainable future through the coalescence, empowerment, and organization of the student environmental movement. We are a unified front moving forward on environmental justice through activism, development, and education. We believe in holding campuses, corporations, and governments both responsible and accountable not only in maintaining the environment but allowing ecosystems to live and prosper. We seek to expand our reach and engage our communities by building relationships with non-student driven organizations which stand in solidarity with our cause. By using our unique position as students, we demand that our universities practice sustainability by utilizing clean, renewable, safe energy. 
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KSEC HITS THE GROUND RUNNING FOR FALL SEMESTER!

9/22/2014

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​By Sammy Meador, Intern, KY Student Environmental Coalition​
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19 Eastern Kentucky University Green Crew members pose for a photo petition, holding a banner reading, "Our Water, Our Future"
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A grid of 16 images, each featuring 1 or 2 Murray State University students holding a blue sign reading, "Our Water, Our Future"
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36 young Kentuckians pose in front of a bus, holding a sign reading, "The Kentucky Student Environmental Coalition"
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​About 20 people, mostly youth, march in Berea. One holds a sign reading, "20% of emissions are from motor vehicles"
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12 people, mostly youth, pose with signs at Lexington's Climate March.
The Kentucky Student Environmental Coalition is gearing up for the 2014-2015 school year, and it’s shaping up to be as strong as ever. In a few weeks, we are hosting our Fall Summit, which will be a great opportunity for Kentucky youth to learn about our work and get plugged in. Plus, we'll be camping, eatin good food, and having lots of fun. Until then, here's a recap of our already busy semester!

Just a few weeks into the semester, we’ve already had a statewide day of action in solidarity with the Alliance for Appalachia’s “Our Water, Our Future” event, calling on lawmakers to enforce protections for frontline coal extraction communities.

Yesterday, 36 of our members shook up New York City at the People’s Climate March. There, they joined over 300,000 other environmental justice advocates and environmentalists from around the country and around the world to urge world leaders at Ban Ki-moon’s Climate Summit to take strong action to protect our future on this planet.

They were joined in Kentucky by students of Berea College HEAL, who hosted a solidarity march in tandem with the New York City People’s Climate March. They were also joined by KSEC members marching in solidarity in Lexington.


On campus, high school and college students across the state are making plans to pressure their administrators to protect our communities, from banning Styrofoam plates in their cafeterias at DuPont Manual, to creating a long term a Climate Action Plan at the University of Kentucky, to creating a green fee at Murray State University. There’s so much amazing work to do this semester and we’re hitting the ground running!
Want to join us? Our next big event is on October 10, when youth environmentalists from all over the state will convene at our Fall Summit to learn more about the issues we work on, gain some new skills, and plan for the coming year. We will meet at Wiley’s Last Resort, on the top of beautiful Pine Mountain:


It will be a weekend not just for leaders, but for any student and young adult in Kentucky who wants to learn about what we’re doing and join in on the fun! There will also be opportunities to see a mountaintop removal site, hike Pine Mountain, and take a tour of Appalshop, the Appalachian cultural center in Whitesburg, KY. Click here for more information, and be sure to register by October 1st!

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Jim Webb, owner of the venue, sits on a swing in front of sign reading "Wiley's Last Resort"
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Green foliage foregrounds blue-gray mountains blanketed in fog. Taken from the top of Pine Mountain. Photo credit: Ian MacLellan
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    About

    The Young Kentuckian is a blog of the Kentucky Student Environmental Coalition where youth share their work and ideas for Kentucky's bright future. 

    If you would like to write a post for the blog, please email Kat Smith.


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