Massachusetts High Schoolers Help Plan Town’s Sustainable Future

Through a local school's Environmental Sustainability Course, seniors work with a mentor from a local organization or business to develop projects that can increase the town’s environmental sustainability.

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(TNS) -- Through a high school internship course, local students are making big changes that they hope will make the town of Andover, Mass., a better place for years to come.

In Andover High School’s Environmental Sustainability Course, seniors work with a mentor from a local organization or business to develop projects that can increase the town’s environmental sustainability. During the course, the students work in and out of the classroom on their projects that have potential to reach much farther than the one-year course.

Last Friday, students shared posters they had made of their projects with members of the public and the school.

Students measured salt levels along the Shawsheen River, met with local officials to create plans for pocket parks throughout town, studied biking routes around town, and surveyed the community to uncover how residents relate to the town’s history.

Yazhini Ramesh, a senior, has met with members from Memorial Hall Library, Andover Historical Society, Andover Green Advisory Board, Rotary Club of Andover, and Economic Development Council to discuss the possibilities of building pocket parks that combine the town’s history with it’s future by “contributing greatly toward a renewed sense of place for a community.”

History can also play into sustainability in other ways, and Hannah Passanisi has been working with the Andover Historical Society to uncover how. Through surveys and hours of research, Passanisi worked to discover ways that Andover’s past can be communicated through technology to keep future generations engaged in the history. Sustaining an interest in history, Passanisi said, can instill a sense of pride in residents and lead them to care for their environment more.

©2016 the Andover Townsman (Andover, Mass.) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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