The GIN Sustainability Boost Program seeks to raise environmental awareness and change student behavior by presenting lessons on topics such as composting and reducing the carbon footprint.

TCS Boost Sustainability Program started in October of 2021 to inform the students about global issues such as climate change, pollution, deforestation, littering, among others.  The program was launched by 11 GIN participants from middle and high school led by Seniors Felipe Jaramillo and Sofia Urrea.

“Our main focus is to teach the students at a young age so they create environmental and social conscience in the future,” Urrea said.

The team is also developing a website where they can update students with the latest news, similar to The Discoverer.

“Many students don’t care about the environment and they think it’s not relevant. We want them to learn that it is a big issue, and they can do something to solve it,” Manuela Saldarriaga, Grade 11 and  program participant, said.

The team’s goal is to have the website and the presentations completed and ready by May 2022. Due to miscommunication issues, members are uncertain that they are going to meet their goal.

“We want this to go perfectly so we can create a lot of awareness around the school. The plan is to have everything ready before the end of this year, but I have a feeling that we are not going to make it on time,” Saldarriaga, said.

While originally intended for elementary school students the team realized that the project could be useful for high school and middle school since many students in middle and high school lack an understanding of global issues.

 “When we started we wanted to teach the little kids so they could be aware of the issue, but then we realized it was a much better idea if we made our presentations public for other people around the school that would be interested,” Saldarriaga, said.

The team has great expectations for the effectiveness of this program and is sure that if students are aware of the global issues they believe that in the future the school can become a cleaner and more environmentally friendly place.

“I believe if things go according to plan, in the future we can see amazing things happen at the school. It’s just a matter of small actions that can lead to a big change,” Saldarriaga, said.