Kasch Marquardt

00:00
My experience with the environment growing up has been grand. My parents love to take me on hikes and walks and any kind of thing that they could take me in nature to like enrich my education and my experiences and I feel like I really grew from that. I didn't really particularly love hiking or love the environment until I was about seven or eight.

00:39
But after that, we would just keep going on to the Bay Area, keep going around this area as well in the spring and winter. It just showed me the beauty of the environment. the giant fires that started coming and bringing so much smoke into the valley. I had asthma, and I don't have it anymore, but I used to have asthma. So that would really affect me.

01:06
And I still remember, I must have been in third grade when the smoke was at hazardous levels, like over 400. And my mom, in concern with my asthma, just had me stay home for a whole week. and I mean I feel like I didn't think about it that much at the time but coming back to school like I could just feel my lungs kind of tighten and it was just not not a great experience and from there on I kind of became really concerned about the environment and its health after seeing the giant swaths of land burned and our air quality go so bad that animals were couldn't survive and we were suffering too.

01:46
And that was probably the major factor that kind of led me into my interest in the environment. My resolution was about waste because that research activity helped me find what board policies our district had passed and what our district hadn't. And there were only two that we hadn't passed, the green school operations and the integrated waste management. I was going to pass both at the same time, but I'm ending up only trying to pass the resolution itself.

02:18
I was talking with one person at the district, but I talked with them for a really long time and we made progress. And then all of a sudden that contact just kind of dropped. And like I emailed them and they just no response. And And a couple months later, I got involved in another organization because I was like, I really need to get this passed.

02:40
I've been waiting for too long. So I actually went on the school district website and the student board member was actually senior at my school, who I knew a little bit. So I talked with her and she got me onto the Student Advisory Council like I was to come into their next meeting. And that was the most helpful thing ever because they were like, we love this resolution and especially their supervisor.

03:09
Amazing. She was like, we'll help you in any way you want. We can send it directly to the board. We'll sponsor your resolution and let's hope we can get it on the board in less than a month. because I was kind of rushing at that point. And that was only like maybe a month and a half ago. After that, we got some edits in and then like just verbiage edits and wording edits.

03:41
And we got that in and then it got blocked. So we've had to meet with more people, have some more meetings, modify the verbiage a little bit more. And I've had to kind of say, well I I like this but it's too weak and it's not gonna get anywhere if we implement it so we've had to like compromise a lot being a changemaker I feel like it has it has far-reaching impacts because you get to know these people who are either kind of wishy-washy or they're super invested in what you're doing.

04:20
And I feel like those people who are super invested in what you're doing, like you're going to make great connections with them and they're going to talk about you to other people and just a whole bunch of opportunities, connections, everything is going to open up for you. And that will ultimately push you to making even more change and advocating for even more things that you're passionate about.

04:41
And to start in being a change maker, some advice I would say just network network network if something turns into a dead end do not stop there you have to reach out to someone else i mean you might get back to square one but you'll still be somewhere you'll still have an idea a final plan in mind so just never lose hope someone's going to either want exactly what you have or want to make changes with it love your idea um as long as it's feasible relatively feasible and as long as it's realistic too.

05:22
I really am thinking business because I just love that route and I want to go into sustainable business because I feel like that's a really interesting field and it's only going to grow from here of course. I still want to be involved in environmentalism and sustainability when I go into college and I hope to join some clubs who have this focus on campus as well as continue to make impacts on organizations like my friend actually who I got acquainted with from a completely different thing is kind of on the same advocacy route as me and she was part of GSAC which is the Green Schools Action Coalition in Sacramento and she kind of showed me what it is and And I said, wow, I would really love to join that.

06:11
So I did. And hopefully that will lead to even more things. And I'll stay in there while I'm in college and keep continuing to do my thing. I'm so glad for CYCP. I'm like, I can't thank them enough because it really just got me kickstarted into advocacy like as a whole. And I feel like there's not really one thing that is going to completely stay with me because I feel like my experience after getting started into this field is only going to grow.

06:38
I didn't really know what this program would bring to me and like how far I would have come. And now I feel like it's really come full circle. I feel like everything has panned out amazingly, even though I haven't gotten my resolution passed yet. I feel like I've made so many connections, had so much progress. Now I know what advocacy is like.

06:58
And I have all that experience that I wouldn't have had a year ago. And I feel like this was just the initial step into a whole range of new opportunities for me.