Resulting from a long-standing partnership with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s National Conservation Training Center, the MJV recently welcomed the Green Schools Alliance (GSA) to our partnership. Our Fish and Wildlife Service partners introduced an opportunity for MJV to learn about and engage with a new educational initiative through the GSA network. We are excited to welcome Green Schools Alliance to the MJV partnership and to expand monarch and pollinator conservation efforts through their network of schools.
Created by schools for schools, GSA is a unique, global “peer-to-peer” network of pre-K to grade 12 schools represented by their sustainability coordinators, students, faculty, facility managers, and administrators who work together to solve climate and conservation challenges. Since 2007, GSA has grown to include 5000 public and private schools in 43 U.S. states and 44 countries representing 3 million students.
The GSA believes that schools are transformational hubs of communities worldwide that build neighborhood resilience, transform policy, shift behavior, and prepare the next generation of innovators and stewards. Through place-based STEAM learning opportunities that integrate education and action to build leadership, GSA programs galvanize schools into action. Alliance schools collaborate locally and virtually to share and implement sustainable best practices, and promote connections between schools, communities and the environments that sustain them.
GSA member schools commit to implementing tangible action following three tracks: 1) reduce climate and ecological impact, 2) educate and engage the community, and 3) connect to nature and place. This model aligns very well with monarch and pollinator conservation. MJV and partners will work with GSA to promote the establishment of pollinator habitat on school grounds and the utilization of these habitats for formal and informal learning. Schools that actively participate in monarch conservation and education will be highlighted through the GSA and MJV websites to encourage a higher level of participation by other network schools through peer-to-peer communication.
Know of a school(s) that might be interested in becoming a GSA member, and better yet, engaging in monarch/pollinator conservation? Check out their website for more information: http://greenschoolsalliance.org/