Greenpeace University

Sounds like a typical Greenpeace action -- but it's actually a training session, a part of the "Greenpeace Organizing Term" project which takes students from around the United States and teaches them how to be more efficient and effective environmental activists. 

(If you're a student, you can apply here.)

This year, seven students were chosen from around 125 applicants. Amy Faulring, one of the coordinators of the project, says "We´re looking for commitment, passion, people who see solutions and see themselves as active in creating them." Applicants fill out an online form which asks questions like "Martin Luther King Jr. and Henry David Thoreau were willing to go to jail for their beliefs. What are you willing to do in our struggle to protect the environment?"

See the world you're saving

Aside from being schooled in Greenpeace action techniques, students also get a behind-the-scenes glimpse at the Greenpeace operations in the US and at least one other country. This year, they travelled to Amsterdam to visit Greenpeace's worldwide headquarters and participate in the commemoration of the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior, by creating a giant human peace sign and rainbow in Paris.

(You can click these links to hear two Podcasts, one about their expriences as campus activists and the other about their work to stop Kimberly-Clark from clearcutting ancient forests.

Emily Rowan of of Wesleyan University is studying natural resources conservation, and found out about the project through her hiking club at college. "You get to see how Greenpeace fits in with the environmental movement in general and what an historic organisation it is."

Rohini Banskota is this term's only high school student.  She applied when she read about the GOT in her weekly trawl of the Greenpeace International and Greenpeace USA websites. "It's an intense dream for us, lots of information, you have to work and concentrate and focus really hard. We get exposed to all different parts of Greenpeace: meeting the media folks, the scientists and the action folks, the photographers and videographers..."

"Greenpeace is misunderstood in my community," says Anca Giugiurlescu "and I'll be going home with a much better understanding and appreciation. I hope I can change some minds."

Real action, real campaigns

The training isn't all theoretical. The students participate in a real Greenpeace campaign, and many of them continue the work upon return to their universities.

This term, the students are participating in the campaign to convince Kimberly-Clark, makers of Kleenex, to stop clearcutting ancient forests to make their products. 

"It takes 90 years to grow a box of Kleenex" says Josh Keenan, a political science major at New Mexico University.

"When you tell people that, it really puts it on their conscience and makes them think. If you care about this issue, it's not just about not buying Kimberly-Clark, it's about letting Kimberly-Clark know why you're using your consumer power to vote against them. It's only by a combination of economic penalties and people making themselves heard that anything's going to change."

Britney Dunnebacke in a supermarket action against Kleenex (Kleercut) products.

Past teams have participated in the nationwide work of lobbying universities to join the energy revolution by procuring green energy and installing on-site renewable sources. Among the victories have been ground-breaking commitment from the University of California at Berkeley and, most recently, a 100 percent green energy committment from Reading University.

Some students earn credit for their coursework with Greenpeace, and Diana Silbergeld, another coordinator of the project, hopes that policy will expand to more universities. "There are some great professors out there who work with us. We need more of them."

Britney Dunnebacke, from South Carolina, summed up her experience: "I just want to keep doing this. We're getting people interested and educated and hyped up... We're also having a lot of fun."